I've always enjoyed the phrase 'cognitive dissonance'.
It's quite often used to refer to the feeling one gets right after they have bought a new car, and essentially goes like this:
"Oh my God, is this right?" Also known as: "Did I make the wrong choice?"
But cognitive dissonance is actually a much more complex state of mind, and to apply its definition only to pre-purchase or post-purchase anxiety does not do the application of understanding the psychology a favor.
Consider the more clinical definitions:
Quote:The realization of contradictions in one's own attitudes and behaviors.
Quote:The anxiety that occurs when there is a discrepancy between a person's knowledge and beliefs.
Quote:An unpleasant emotional state that is felt when there is a logical inconsistency among cognitive elements.
Quote:The cognitive process whereby an individual's values and beliefs are challenged. The challenging process is necessary in moral reasoning to wrestle with moral dilemmas.
So the experience of cognitive dissonance occurs anytime there is a contradiction between one's knowledge, usually newly acquired, and one's belief system, rationalizations and justifications.
I bring all of this up because it has become obvious to me that there are scores of thousands of Republicans experiencing cognitive dissonance associated with voting for George W. Bush in November.
Those of us with open minds and who have been paying attention know that Bush has, shall we kindly say, been less than forthright about a great many of his assertions, and not just the ones regarding Iraq and the war.
We know Cheney is full of it.
So why the dissonance, exactly? Why do so many Republicans simply refuse to be enlightened?
Here's a handy explanation from a social psychologist writing in
Newsday:
Quote:...With a middle ground made less likely, it forces us as the recipients of both positions to make a choice. In a rational world, people can make an assessment about the motives of a member of the administration in a re-election year versus a bipartisan commission that is not involved in the election. In a rational world, the credibility of the commission on this point would be virtually unassailable.
As we know, though, people are not always rational. The need to reduce our dissonance is one of the forces that compromise our rationality. People who identify with Bush and Cheney for any number of reasons will have difficulty resolving dissonance by dismissing their position.
Maybe this could explain
the Harris poll numbers:
Quote:Many Americans believe al-Qaeda may have worked alongside the regime of Saddam Hussein, according to a poll by Harris Interactive. 69 per cent of respondents believe the deposed Iraqi leader supported the terrorist network, while 22 per cent disagree.
In the end, those that can't take the dissonance will tune out the facts -- or they will stop voting for the Republicans.
Bush's -- and Cheney's and Rice's and all of the rest of the prevaricators' -- behavior puts the latter option in play.
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