Invalidation, Presidential Politics

The other day I saw a video of George Bush talking about his reaction when he saw the first plane hit the World Trade Center tower. He was speaking to an audience. He said something like "When I saw the plane hit the building I thought to myself 'Man, that is one terrible pilot.'" Then he seems to have quickly realized that what he said was not funny, so he tried to sound more serious. I have a video clip below.

Thinking about it now, I realize that in a way this is large scale invalidation of all the people who lost someone close to them on 911. It is a little hard for me to write about this. I am choosing my words very carefully. I don't want to start labeling Bush, and I am afraid of labeling my own feelings, or even letting myself feel them. I am trying to stay somewhat "objective". I am trying to write an article which will look at what he said from a perspective of emotional intellience, and compassion. By compassion I mean the compassion, or lack of it, shown by Bush in that remark.

It is a little hard for me to believe that he would try to make a joke out of what happened on 911. But as I think about it, I can understand why he would. First, I would guess that all his life he has been making jokes. Making jokes is a good form of invalidating someone. It is "effective". It is also a good or effective way of defending yourself, at least in many situations. In other words, when you feel guilty about something, many times you can make a joke about it to "lighten up" the situation.

But what happened on 911 is not something to make a joke out of. Not unless what happened really didn't bother you that much. On my list of ways to invalidate someone, I include telling them to "lighten up." In this case Bush probably feels defensive about his failure to respond when was in the classroom in Florida and heard about the attacks. So he may be trying to "lighten up" the situation so people won't feel so blaming, accusing and attacking towards him.

In other words, if we believed he just really just thought "Man, that is one terrible pilot" then Bush can not be blamed in the slightest for failing to respond. But even if he thought that about the first plane, what did he think about the second? And, more importantly, at least to those who study emotions, how was he feeling at that instant? Maybe he was feeling guilty for still being in the classroom after he had already heard about the first plane. We really don't know how he was feeling and we never will. We can only guess and try to figurre out for ourselves based on his body language. I don't think many of us now are naive enough to believe his spoken words.

Bush usually tries to sound very serious when he talks about 911. He tries to play upon the feelings of Americans and others. This is how he gets a lot of things done. It is how he gets a lot of things pushed through Congress.

Is he emotionally intelligent? Is Bush an example of an emotionally intelligent leader? And if so, is he using his emotional intelligence in a way which is good for the world, or even good for the people of the United States?

I think of what I call the "dark side" of emotional intelligence. I suspect that Bush is using what emotional intelligence he has to manipulate people, and, at times, to defend himself.

In the case of 911 I have studied his facial reaction to hearing that the second tower was hit. Below is a video clip. (Later I may edit the video so it just shows his reaction and not the rest of the arguing.) Look carefully at Bush's reaction. He looks from one side to the room to the other. He twitches his mouth, almost biting his lip. He looks down. In one word, he looks guilty of something.

If the theory of emotional intelligence is going to really be important in our day to day lives, what could be more important than analyzing someone like the President's reactions in a situation like this?

I am not a big believer in conspiracy theories. But I am feeling more and more skeptcial of Bush. When I take these two incidents into consideration, one being his attempt to make a joke out of the first plane hitting the tower, and the other being his facial reaction to hearing the second tower had been hit, I feel very concerned.

When I start to add in other things I have learned recently, such as former Secretary of the Treasury O'Neil saying that Bush had been making plans to invade Iraq long before 911, I feel more untrusting of him and more fear for what is happening in the USA. I feel more of a responsibility to speak up, to add my voice to the discussion.

I ask who ever reads this to start to talk to psychologists, especially experts in facial expressions for example, and ask them for their analysis of Bush's reaction. And ask them what might motivate someone to try to make a joke out of a plane crashing into an office building full of people, even if it were just an isolated incident, not connected with an alleged "war on terrorism," and even if you were not the President of the United States.

I ask those of you who are interested in emotional intelligence to take some time and think about what I am saying here. In fact, I would like those who consider themselves to be in the field of emotional intelligence to send me their opinions. I believe this is too important an issue to avoid by saying it is too poliitical and professionals don't get involved in politics. Instead, I believe this is a time when we need the honest opinions of those professionals and those who wish to be called experts.

S. Hein
December 17, 2007
Istanbul

Bush trying to make a joke out of the first plane crashing into the WTC.

Bush facial reaction when he heard the second tower had been hit.

In trying to imagine how I might feel if I heard that a second airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center, I suspect I would feel surprised and interested in knowing more and finding out more. I might also feel shocked or horrified or afraid of what the implications were if not only one plane had hit, but two. I expect my face would show these emotions. Bush's face shows neither surprise, nor, interest, nor horror nor fear. So how was Bush feeling at that instant? And for the next few minutes as he sat there in the classroom? And what does his reaction say about his true feelings, motives, trustworthiness and integrity?

How emotionally honest is Bush being when he tries to make a joke by saying he thought .... ? I suspect that he is actually being fairly emotionally honest. By this I mean his behavior seems to be consistent with his true feelings. In other words, he seems not to truly feel compassion for those who died. If one truly feels compassion or grief, could they even attempt to make such a joke?

We might say that the joke is to try to cover up the deeper feelings, but in this case, are the deeper feelings actually even present? As I have suggested before, it is possible that he actually feels more guilty, or at least defensive, than he feels sympathy or empathy. I have written before that feeling defensive and feeling empathy are mutually exclusive. If we ourselves feel attacked and defensive, it is hard or impossible to feel empathy for sommeone else. This is just nature and our survival instinct.

If a person has emotional integrity, it means their feelings are consistent with their spoken words and the image they portray to the public. In this case, if Bush was, as many now believe, using September 11 as an excuse to invade Iraq, then it would be understandable that he did not feel much remorse for those who died. He might believe these deaths were in some way necessary to achieve his own personal goals. The problem with emotional integrity is that his feelings, if I am at all correct, do not match his claims that he feels deep sorrow for the families of those who died. In other words, there is no integrity or wholeness between his feelings and his words. He says he believes in one thing, but his actions don't reflect his words. His own feelings then, are not going to be consistent.

In this case of making of trying to make a joke, Bush seems to feel guilty and defensive, rather than empathy, sympathy or compassion for those who lost their lives and their familiies, friends and loved ones. This would be understandable from a psychological or emotional intelligence perspective, but it would not show Bush as having what we could call emotional integrity.

A problem I see with politicians in general is that they lack both emotional honesty and emotional integrity. In my opinion, Bush is just a prime example of this.

Even if that actually was his first thought on September 11th, his comments were made much later. They were made after he had already become fully aware of how many people were killed. To me it is impossible to believe that he could say what he did, in the tone of voice he did, if his main feeling was anything close to grief, sadness, remorse or compassion.

For him to be able to almost joke about it after knowing the reality of what happened suggests that more than anything else he was feeling defensive and guilty. These feelings would take precedent over his other feelings. What we still don't know, and probably never will know, is just what he is guilty of.

But in my opinion, he is guilty of enough things to be impeached and go down in history as one of the country's biggest liars, right along side with Richard Nixon. Nixon at least resigned. I doubt that Bush would ever do that. As I have said before, I bellieve George Bush is one of the most danergous leaders in history.