cognitive dissonance...
...however it's spelled, can be an ugly thing that drives people apart, segregates you from those who would otherwise be your friend, and punishes those that are simply trying to be honest in a world filled with bullshit.
"yes, but... i don't know what you mean, exactly", you may say. Well, what I mean is this: cognitive dissonence, however it's spelled, does something more sinister than simply dividing us with others, it separates us from reality itself by imposing a world view that not only goes unchallenged, but defends itself. it is a virus. it is the manifestation of pure ignorance.
"no," you may say, "i just don't know what the hell 'cognitive dis-oh-nance' is".
that's because it's kind of a pompous, psuedo-intellectual thing to say. (me being a pompous psuedo-intellectual, i figured people expect this from me, but i digress...)
what it means is this: you believe something so strongly, that nothing, not even pure, blinding truth, acts right in front of your eyes defying your belief, can convince you otherwise. you are locked into an ideology. a framework for thought. margins. limits. you are enslaved. cognitive dissonence is the process of denying that reality, and we are all guilty of it.
...even me.
ironically, our strongest beleifs are usually the ones that hold up best against truth. that, in a sense, is what makes them strong.
in another sense, it's what makes us strong.
for example, i think the war in iraq is a crock of shit and i hate the fact that we went in there. i think that our government, your government, lies up it's ass about the motivations for this war. i think that the real reasons for the war aren't even mentioned in the news or in newspapers, who serve as mouthpeices, more or less, for the powers that be. these are beliefs that i have. i hold them pretty strongly, despite the fact that there is a lot of "evidence" that goes against what i'm saying.
after all, how could the media really be controlled by the government? it just logistically impossible. there's no way it can be done. there can't possibly be that much collusion involved, at every level, in ever media district. besides, the media outlets that cover the "real" story are clearly biased in many ways. so why do i still believe it?
saddam hussien was a brutal tyrant. he was an asshole. he gassed his own people, tortured his political enemies and their families. he forced everybody to live in fear of him. he thought very little of human life when compared to his power. its a good thing that he's gone. so why do i still think we shouldn't have gone to war?
i think i know why i feal the way i feal. it's my perspective. i have this need to see more. i have a need to see things from different perspectives. while most people are satisfied with seeing one part of the whole, and having the rest explained to them, i'm not. i need to see all the angles. i ask "what if this wasn't true?". i ask "where is this information coming from?". i ask "why?".
if you listen to the president, watch the news, talk to your patriotic buddies and properly ignor anyone who disagrees with you (it helps to call them "ignorant", "uninformed", and "stupid") and catagorize everyone into "us" and "them" (polorization), then it's easy to see why the war must be fought, why we did the right thing, and why we should stay the course and "support our troops" and leave our flags out an tie yellow ribbons around our trees and leave magnetic ribbons on our cars.
it's easy, because we are avoiding the considerations of the other side of the equation. we justify our own misdeads and exagerate our enemies. we exagerate our own benevolence and call any attempts to portray our enemies as human anti-american propaganda. we devide information into two camps: one that supports our perceptions, and one that attacts them. we learn how to defend our beliefs by attacking the information that contradicts them, and we learn to accept things that we wouldn't normally accept if it's laced with things we agree with. this means that cognitive dissonance, however it's spelled, makes it easier to control us.
so, i ask myself why i believe the things i believe. am i sure? can i defend my beliefs? can i honestly say that i am more informed than everybody else that disagrees with me? do i honestly believe that i know more about investigative journalism than, say, investigative journalists?
of course not. however, somebody has to have the perspective that i do.
hell, you never know: i might even be right.
"yes, but... i don't know what you mean, exactly", you may say. Well, what I mean is this: cognitive dissonence, however it's spelled, does something more sinister than simply dividing us with others, it separates us from reality itself by imposing a world view that not only goes unchallenged, but defends itself. it is a virus. it is the manifestation of pure ignorance.
"no," you may say, "i just don't know what the hell 'cognitive dis-oh-nance' is".
that's because it's kind of a pompous, psuedo-intellectual thing to say. (me being a pompous psuedo-intellectual, i figured people expect this from me, but i digress...)
what it means is this: you believe something so strongly, that nothing, not even pure, blinding truth, acts right in front of your eyes defying your belief, can convince you otherwise. you are locked into an ideology. a framework for thought. margins. limits. you are enslaved. cognitive dissonence is the process of denying that reality, and we are all guilty of it.
...even me.
ironically, our strongest beleifs are usually the ones that hold up best against truth. that, in a sense, is what makes them strong.
in another sense, it's what makes us strong.
for example, i think the war in iraq is a crock of shit and i hate the fact that we went in there. i think that our government, your government, lies up it's ass about the motivations for this war. i think that the real reasons for the war aren't even mentioned in the news or in newspapers, who serve as mouthpeices, more or less, for the powers that be. these are beliefs that i have. i hold them pretty strongly, despite the fact that there is a lot of "evidence" that goes against what i'm saying.
after all, how could the media really be controlled by the government? it just logistically impossible. there's no way it can be done. there can't possibly be that much collusion involved, at every level, in ever media district. besides, the media outlets that cover the "real" story are clearly biased in many ways. so why do i still believe it?
saddam hussien was a brutal tyrant. he was an asshole. he gassed his own people, tortured his political enemies and their families. he forced everybody to live in fear of him. he thought very little of human life when compared to his power. its a good thing that he's gone. so why do i still think we shouldn't have gone to war?
i think i know why i feal the way i feal. it's my perspective. i have this need to see more. i have a need to see things from different perspectives. while most people are satisfied with seeing one part of the whole, and having the rest explained to them, i'm not. i need to see all the angles. i ask "what if this wasn't true?". i ask "where is this information coming from?". i ask "why?".
if you listen to the president, watch the news, talk to your patriotic buddies and properly ignor anyone who disagrees with you (it helps to call them "ignorant", "uninformed", and "stupid") and catagorize everyone into "us" and "them" (polorization), then it's easy to see why the war must be fought, why we did the right thing, and why we should stay the course and "support our troops" and leave our flags out an tie yellow ribbons around our trees and leave magnetic ribbons on our cars.
it's easy, because we are avoiding the considerations of the other side of the equation. we justify our own misdeads and exagerate our enemies. we exagerate our own benevolence and call any attempts to portray our enemies as human anti-american propaganda. we devide information into two camps: one that supports our perceptions, and one that attacts them. we learn how to defend our beliefs by attacking the information that contradicts them, and we learn to accept things that we wouldn't normally accept if it's laced with things we agree with. this means that cognitive dissonance, however it's spelled, makes it easier to control us.
so, i ask myself why i believe the things i believe. am i sure? can i defend my beliefs? can i honestly say that i am more informed than everybody else that disagrees with me? do i honestly believe that i know more about investigative journalism than, say, investigative journalists?
of course not. however, somebody has to have the perspective that i do.
hell, you never know: i might even be right.
posted by That guy with the top hat at 5:31 PM
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