{"id":1106,"date":"2011-02-21T01:30:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T01:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.convergingzone.com\/ricciardelli\/how-do-we-become-stupid-by-dr-ron-jenson\/"},"modified":"2011-02-21T01:30:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-21T01:30:00","slug":"how-do-we-become-stupid-by-dr-ron-jenson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/robertricciardelli\/ricciardelli\/how-do-we-become-stupid-by-dr-ron-jenson\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do We Become Stupid? by Dr. Ron Jenson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\u201cHow STUPID\u201d was the comment my wife and I simultaneously uttered last night while watching the news report of Republican congressman Chris Lee resigning after his shirtless Craigslist post.\n

The reporter said, \u201cRepublican politician resigns after woman\u2019s web search reveals \u2018fit fun classy guy\u2019 posing as divorcee to be in fact married with a son.\u201d<\/p>\n

You probably know the story by now. Our response of \u201chow stupid\u201d resulted from the disconnect. After all, how could a powerful, second-term US Congressman do something so wreckless and, yes, stupid?<\/p>\n

He has a wife and son and was a rising star in the Republican Party, but he tanked. Why?<\/p>\n

My sense is that he became stupid like most of us do \u2026 slowly but surely.\u00a0 Here is what seems to be the evolution of this kind of stupidity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 1. Success and recognition of our accomplishments.
\u00a0\u00a0 2. Beginning to believe our own press.
\u00a0\u00a0 3. A lack of attention to and\/or unwillingness to address character flaws and inappropriate and unhealthy internal motivations.
\u00a0\u00a0 4. Pressures of leadership and life.
\u00a0\u00a0 5. Refusal to develop self-discipline and good habits.
\u00a0\u00a0 6. A sense of inadequacy and unfulfillment.
\u00a0\u00a0 7. Development of a facade or public front.
\u00a0\u00a0 8. A growing lack of support and personal accountability.
\u00a0\u00a0 9. Increasing split between the private and public life.
\u00a0 10. Self-sabotaging behavior.
\u00a0 11. Increasingly risky activities.
\u00a0 12. Crashing publicly.
\u00a0 13. Disgrace and dishonor.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my take on how we become stupid. We all have the capacity to end up there. That\u2019s why we so desperately need friends who support us and hold our feet to the fire, internal spiritual resources, a focus on inner life and integrity (same in public as we are in private), and the humility to admit when we mess up (as we all do).<\/p>\n

By the way, my wife and I are both filled with sorrow for him (hey we\u2019re all seriously flawed), his family, the US Congress and the millions of people touched by yet another sad situation. But this forced me to ask how can this kind of thing happens?<\/p>\n

What do you think? Did I get this right? What would you add or edit? Let\u2019s think about this together.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow STUPID\u201d was the comment my wife and I simultaneously uttered last night while watching the news report of Republican congressman Chris Lee resigning after his shirtless Craigslist post. The reporter said, \u201cRepublican politician resigns after woman\u2019s web search reveals \u2018fit fun classy guy\u2019 posing as divorcee to be in fact married with a son.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1596,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ricciardelli"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Do We Become Stupid? by Dr. Ron Jenson<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cHow STUPID\u201d was the comment my wife and I simultaneously uttered last night while watching the news report of Republican congressman Chris Lee resigning\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/robertricciardelli\/ricciardelli\/how-do-we-become-stupid-by-dr-ron-jenson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Do We Become Stupid? 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