Cognitive Dissonance
Saturday December 4, 2021: 1518 Pe'ahi, Maui, Hawai'i © 2021 Stefan J. Malecek, Ph.D.
The title refers to the Festinger's (1956/1957) theory that, if individuals have two actions or ideas that are not psychologically consistent with each other, they will do all in their power to change them until they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person's beliefs clashing with new information perceived, and the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce the discomfort.
I recently read a brief article proclaiming/celebrating the fact that the US Government (USG) has just launched a missile to test our ability to "protect us" by destroying an asteroid (that seems to be doing nothing other than living its quiet life). Ostensibly (or at least what they are telling us) this is not an emergency. It was called a "test." Last week I read an article that there are plans afoot (funded, undoubtedly, by billions of our tax money) to build a nuclear reactor on the moon, and then possibly on Mars-- so as to facilitate the USG's desire to have US citizens (not humanity's) reach the stars!
I would be simply amazed and flabbergasted, were I not prepared for any kind of nonsense such as this coming out in the media as supposedly representing my opinions or those of the collectivity of US citizens, as being in agreement with such efforts!
I proclaim this to be yet another (of many, many such on a daily basis) manifestation of the humanity's collective delusion, of humanity's brainwashing. There was some sense, especially in the latter article, of false pride and, in my opinion, hubris--the ancient term used to define spiritual arrogance (such as famously denoted by the attempt of Icarus to fly to the Sun with waxen wings (ignoring his father Daedalaus' advice not to do so) that imbued the writing.
The kind of behavior the USG is exhibiting resonates so strongly with this word, especially since there are starving children in this country, 1500 of whom (statistically) die every day from lack of food! I know it sounds incredible, but this is just a small sample of the denial that is practiced every day by the people of this country. I get severely depressed sometimes because it feels like no on one else is really listening.
We have been collectively brainwashed (conditioned) to blithely go along our merry way, striving and seeking to obtain more, ever more; to please our every appetite; to quench our insatiable thirst; to fulfill our every desire, to the exclusion of the needs of others and certainly that of the planet. This, to me, is the utter height of arrogance and points to the collective mindset of most of humanity (and certainly of its "leaders"). To, in effect, fund massive military projects while ignoring the extraordinary depletion of natural resources (I am not talking about oil or uranium either) and the utter degradation of the planet as a whole. I am appalled at the thought of those holding the current mindset of humanity reaching the stars and creating the same kind of damage there like a virulent cancer metastasizing through the stars.
We are ignoring life-and-death decisions that affect the bulk of humanity to pursue what are basically ego-inflating and ego-preservative efforts. I believe that at the root of all of this is humanity's greatest delusion: that of being completely separate, at-risk individuals who must constantly fight for recognition, proclaiming our "greatness" in the face of the damage to all others. I believe that, at its base, it is multi-generational shame recreated through the emotional transmission of a sense of unworthiness and loss of sovereignty to children, in order to support the traumatogenic environment of the adults ostensibly "running the planet" to make money, treating the planet as if it were their own fiefdom, for which they have no responsibility. (I will be pursuing this line of thought in the following series of posts). It's way past time we woke up!