Cognitive Dissonance 7 November 2012

Cognitive Dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance). Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance etc. For example, when people smoke (behavior) and they know that smoking causes cancer (cognition). Cognitive dissonance was first investigated by Leon Festinger, arising out of a participant observation study of a cult which believed that the earth was going to be destroyed by a flood, and what happened to its members particularly the really committed ones who had given up their homes and jobs to work for the cult when the flood did not happen. While fringe members were more inclined to recognize that they had made fools of themselves and to "put it down to experience", committed members were more likely to re-interpret the evidence to show that they were right all along (the earth was not destroyed because of the faithfulness of the cult members). When someone is forced to do (publicly) something they (privately) really don't want to do, dissonance is created between their cognition (I didn't want to do this) and their behavior (I did it). Forced compliance occurs when an individual performs an action that is inconsistent with his or her beliefs. The behavior can't be changed, since it is already in the past, so dissonance will need to be reduced by re-evaluating their attitude to what they have done. Reference: http://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html That was a long preamble to get to the point of last nights election results: I at the encouragement of Facebook postings, went to Fox News (almost by its title a contradiction in terms) to look at Karl Rove challenge the corporations own statisticians on their call of Ohio for President Obama. Albeit self-serving, Karl did spend $300 million dollars of OPM other peoples money post Citizens United to defeat the president. Part of it was political survival the man whod made a career as former President Bushs Brain now in the words of Ricky Ricardo had some explaining to do. I know a few statisticians, and they can be a dry bunch. But I think one in particular of the two challenged had just had enough of Karls nonsense, and suggested that maybe his computer was slower, a very subtle dig that Karl wasnt nearly as smart as he thought he was (chutzpah from the political operative cum college dropout). Dick Morris described the presidents reelection as a squeaker. Mitch McConnell sounded ever defiant and arrogant when he wrote:

1|Page

Cognitive Dissonance 7 November 2012

The American people did two things: they gave President Obama a second chance to fix the problems that even he admits he failed to solve during his first four years in office, and they preserved Republican control of the House of Representatives, McConnell said in a statement. The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the Presidents first term, they have simply given him more time to finish the job they asked him to do together with a Congress that restored balance to Washington after two years of one-party control.

John Cornyn (my former senator from the state of Texas), had this measured statement:
But its clear that with our losses in the Presidential race, and a number of key Senate races, we have a period of reflection and recalibration ahead for the Republican Party, Cornyn said in a statement, released by National Republican Senatorial Committee. While some will want to blame one wing of the party over the other, the reality is candidates from all corners of our GOP lost tonight. Clearly we have work to do in the weeks and months ahead. Cognitive Dissonance Ed Rollins famously remarked in the early season of the Republican Primaries the party is becoming old, fat and white. He was dismissed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh as a RINO or republican in name only. Mike Lofgren wrote a now famous screed on Truth Out: Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a Former GOP Operative Who Left the Cult and turned it into a book titled The Partys Over: How the Republicans Went Crazy, the Democrats Became Useless and the Middle Class Got Shafted (a very good read I might add). No one seemed to listen or regard Ed or Mikes sage advice. Governor Romney went to the right of Governor Perry in the GOP primary, suggesting Hispanic immigrants self-deport and that Perrys stance of offering opportunity was too soft. Herman Cain suggested an electrified fence. Michelle Bachmans shrilly stated goal (along with Mitch) was to make President Obama a one-term president. Sarah Palin suggested shucking and jiving on the raid on Benghazi; Romney stepped into that in a moment of fact-checked clarity when he couldnt prove the president had not waited (as he asserted) fourteen days vs. 24 hours to call it a terrorist act. John Sununu everyones favorite drunk uncle called the president lazy for his admitted abysmal first debate performance; Newt Gingrich called him the food stamp president Rick Google Santorum ALA blah people almost let the N-word slip out referencing the president. Oh, and in my
2|Page

Cognitive Dissonance 7 November 2012

former state of Texas someone hung an empty chair with a noose and the sign go back to Kenya you idiot; and in my home state of North Carolina, a full effigy of the president swinging in front of a store. Yet, they want minorities to vote for them, I suppose the ones suffering from Stockholm syndrome, or Cognitive Dissonance. And I can assume in holding two opinions, it will never be that the demographics were against them, that the country has changed from the halcyons days celebrated that never were. It will not be that their sons and daughters are attracted to persons of the opposite (or even same sex) in other cultures, their music, slang and dress. It will not be that most areas of authority like the church have been exposed in scandal as greedy and guilty of avarice as any Wall Street financier (along with the physical sins of adultery and pedophilia).

The present danger to our democracy isnt that Christianity has gained too much power and influence over our politics. Rather, its that the heresy of nationalisms co-option of Christian faith has left the faith too weak to play the kind of positive role it has played in our public life. From the book Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by Ross Gregory Douthat.
It will not be a denied for months war on women; legitimate rape; racial bigotry (Professor now Senator-Elect Elizabeth Warren not looking Native American enough for Scott Walker). It will not be dog whistle politics, first blown by Newt-Serial-Adulterer-Gingrich in South Carolina, the heart of the old Confederacy and the first to secede from the Union. It will not be the visual of Ann Romney telling an African American news anchor on ABCNEWS: weve given you people all youre going to get on our taxes. Even Senator Lindsey Graham of the aforementioned South Carolina as stated the demographics are against us.

No. It will be Hurricane Sandy that Kamikaze divine wind blowing at the presidents back. It will be the massive turnout machine they tried mightily to fight changing times, laws and early voting days. It will be the 47% that just want a government handout. It will not be that the Romney Concession crowd looked like a homogeneous science fiction movie from the 1950s no minorities allowed and the few like Allen West wed just as soon as excommunicate from the culture and human species whove drank the Kool-Aid arent examples of a big tent: its the recruitment of rude, self-loathing sociopaths. Theyll hunker down. Theyll naval gaze and come up with someone as weird, as right-of-right as the next true conservative. They will listen to the echo chambers of their own thoughts, since applying the Scientific Method would mean jettisoning old thoughts and ideas for new ones. That would change the party, and change would mean not standing on principle, even if that principle leads not to relevancy but electoral defeat. Theyll at least be honest in their own created reality, their halcyon days that never were they tried desperately to take us all back to.

3|Page