The Psychology of Cognitive Dissonance

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Re: The Psychology of Cognitive Dissonance

Postby jakell » Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:29 am

Sounder » Sun Apr 06, 2014 11:20 am wrote:
jakell » Wed Apr 02, 2014 9:15 am wrote:Is this 'steering culpability' another example of him shifting focus in a way that displeases people. like him steering culpability via him not favouring the conspiratorial angle around 9/11?

It sounds like a woolly phrase that would be hard to prove or disprove.


It does sound clumsy.

The intention is not to prove anything, simply to point out that ‘gatekeeper’ job is to limit discussion while appearing to ‘represent’ a chosen audience. Sort of like what that mini-Chomsky AD does when he tosses anti-fascism chaff at private banker roles in destroying nation states for profit, and other sensitive topics.

We could possibly massage that and call it a gatekeeper role, in that a job is something that has an external form that imposes restrictions, whereas a role is something you can confer upon yourself, or even just something you stumble across and slip into. It could be said that absolutely anyone who achieves a level of prominence and/or respect becomes a sort of a gatekeeper, for good or for ill, it doesn't really require the externalities that 'job' implies.

In the 'role' sense, being a gatekeeper is merely applying rigour and discrimination for the purposes of clarity**, and this is what I see Chomsky as doing. To use the word job implies that he is someone's bitch.

This sort of intersects with what you were saying about RI's own 'gatekeeper', but I don't really see much focus and rigour there, just a vast conglomeration of 'stuff' that accumulates to form a sort of dam, ie not really a door, just a dumb barrier.


**ETA not always so (as described in the following paragraph), but this is the most positive application.
" Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism"
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Re: The Psychology of Cognitive Dissonance

Postby Sounder » Fri Apr 11, 2014 7:28 am

Wombat wrote...
On the Psychology of Cognitive Dissonance, if we begin with the assumption that "Cognitive Dissonance" is the normal functional state of the civilized human being, we can grope towards some curious insights into how the precise tuning & composition of our social myths lead to optimal and sub-optimal results. In other words, The Care and Feeding of Group Consciousness.

For instance, according to The Rats from NIMH, "An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year." Especially common are the garden variety existential complaints of depression and anxiety.

On a larger scale, WHO Data indicates this is pretty much the background noise of Capitalism. Most interesting to me is the fact that, even in larger/wider studies, the onset remains statistically the same: "mental illness" begins with the transition from adolescence to adulthood. In the US that shakes out to 14-21 years old, result vary depending on where you're observing the unfortunate denizens of Countries Other Than Murka, their precise results of course do not merit discussion.

On an individual level, I think a lot of "Cognitive Biases" is the direct result of the schizoid visual conditioning we've all undergone whereby what we read shapes what we see, rather than the reverse. They still print NYT & WSJ because the printed word is the core power of the spell; their annual losses are a small sacrifice for such security.

Humans who crave purpose will fare poorly in a culture with none; all humans crave purpose.


It seems that people have purpose, but it’s bound to be misguided as long as this world is driven by a split model of reality that serves to lock folk into one side of a dichotomy or the other. The ’purpose’ then tends to lack real inspiration and authenticity because ones sub-conscious knowing is not in synch with ones conscious model.

The degree to which folk are rigid in their conscious modeling of reality represents the level of inhibition for dealing with and learning from cognitive dissonance. Therefore the primary goal of the PTMB is to cultivate fixed or rigid belief sets, knowing that folk are easiest to manipulate when they have strong ideology and attachments.

Ideological folk would do well to consider that their efforts to ‘save’ the world (through widespread imposition of a favored idea or ideal, think neo-cons or neo-liberals) is the very thing responsible for messing this world up.

I do wish more people were like Paul Levy and trying to deal with our individual and societal mental illness rather than spending so much time filling heads with fear porn.


http://www.awakeninthedream.com/wordpre ... ve-spirit/
......It is the role of the creative artist to reveal what lies dormant in the unconscious, as if conjuring something to life out of the void. Artists are the first to divine the darkly moving mysterious currents of the collective unconscious. At first there is only the archetypal appearance of the gem deep within the collective unconscious; then unconscious intuition “sees” it, and artists are the ones who feel irresistibly compelled to subsequently search for its adequate formulation. The greatness of great art is that in and through it a higher order of reality is telling us directly about itself, as if it is a bridge leading us to an unknown shore. To quote Neumann, “When unconscious forces break through in the artist, when the archetypes striving to be born into the light of the world take form in him, he is as far from the men around him as he is close to their destiny. For he expresses and gives form to the future of his epoch.”[iv] The creative artist is giving utterance to the authentic and direct revelation of the numinosum, which raises their function to the level of the sacred (please see my article “The Artist as Healer of the World”). Artists are oriented towards the invisible, towards what is beginning to become visible and reveal itself, towards the indescribable mystery alive at the heart of who we are. The images, sounds and movements that the artist perceives are possibilities of new ideas, different ways of seeing and interpreting life which might be able to give a fresh flow to the psychic energy stream of humanity, as if they are clearing the way not only for new tributaries of thought, perception and experience, but are helping to create a novel universe itself. Jung writes, “It is the great dream which has always spoken through the artist as a mouthpiece.”[v]

The same divine creativity which has filled the numberless heavens and spheres of the universe around us is now welling up and emerging within the human psyche and is seeking to creatively express and extend itself outwards into our world. Our many world crises will be soluble only creatively – that is, by a profound and thorough alteration of our inner life and thereby of the outer forms in which life finds expression. When human beings are deprived of their power of expression, however, they will express themselves in the drive for power, which only feeds the will-to-power of the demonic and destructive shadow, with the baneful consequences we know only too well. One of the gravest perils of western civilization arises from the fact that it cuts its members off from their natural creativity. To quote Blake, “Art Degraded Imagination Denied War Governed the Nations.”[xvii]

When I reflect upon my life, it is clear that I, like so many of us, was being “called” by a deeper part of myself to step out of a traditional, mainstream vocation into my life as a creative person. If I hadn’t been fortunate enough to connect with the creative spirit, choosing the artist’s sacred way and breathing its life-giving oxygen, I have no doubt that I’d be depressed, neurotic, crazy and/or dead. The conflict between my father and I was not only between two individuals, but between two world views. In one genuinely inquisitive moment which revealed his lack of understanding, my father asked me why people still make paintings after the invention of the camera. He mistakenly thought that the purpose of art was to describe reality instead of to create it, to capture our world instead of to liberate it.
All these things will continue as long as coercion remains a central element of our mentality.
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Re: The Psychology of Cognitive Dissonance

Postby jakell » Fri Apr 11, 2014 8:21 am

I'm not sure if people need to be encouraged too strongly into rigid belief systems, I'd say it is a strong tendency as we develop and realise the world is frighteningly more complex than we thought (or have been led to think). The result of which is we may start jumping from our initial frying pan into various fires and back again.
I would also say that it is a natural tendency of the PTMB** to transmit simplistic messages as that is all the medium can successfully carry, ie it's not really a direct function of their mendacity.

To sum up, I would say that the tendencies above are not stricly problems to be expunged, but realities that have to be worked with and modified, they can even be turned to our advantage as I was suggesting with my remarks on 'obsession'


** the 'Powers That Might Be' right? took a me a bit to figure that one out.
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Re: The Psychology of Cognitive Dissonance

Postby Sounder » Fri Apr 11, 2014 5:38 pm

jakell, thanks for pointing out the ‘job’, ‘role’ distinction, a fine example of helpful, positive engagement.

I'm not sure if people need to be encouraged too strongly into rigid belief systems, I'd say it is a strong tendency as we develop and realise the world is frighteningly more complex than we thought (or have been led to think). The result of which is we may start jumping from our initial frying pan into various fires and back again.


Yes, the world does seem that way. But think about it, as long as we split the world in two, there will be constant fuel for the arguments as to where ‘order’ comes from.

Naturally, in a battle like that, only the most coercive types tend to achieve ‘great’ success.

When humans adopt a more accurate set of conceptual parameters, they will be happily surprised to find out that the world is in fact quite a bit simpler than they have been led to believe.

I would also say that it is a natural tendency of the PTMB** to transmit simplistic messages as that is all the medium can successfully carry, ie it's not really a direct function of their mendacity.


Simple would be fine, it’s the lies that are a bit more bothersome.

To sum up, I would say that the tendencies above are not stricly problems to be expunged, but realities that have to be worked with and modified, they can even be turned to our advantage as I was suggesting with my remarks on 'obsession'


I never dream of expunging anything. I prefer the slow route where process determines actions rather than using ends (beliefs) for ‘inspiration’.


** the 'Powers That Might Be' right? took a me a bit to figure that one out.


No, but I do like yours also.

It stands for powers that make believe, -or belief.
All these things will continue as long as coercion remains a central element of our mentality.
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Re: The Psychology of Cognitive Dissonance

Postby minime » Fri Apr 11, 2014 8:05 pm

When humans adopt a more accurate set of conceptual parameters, they will be happily surprised to find out that the world is in fact quite a bit simpler than they have been led to believe.


How so?
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Re: The Psychology of Cognitive Dissonance

Postby Sounder » Fri Apr 11, 2014 9:58 pm

When humans adopt a more accurate set of conceptual parameters, they will be happily surprised to find out that the world is in fact quite a bit simpler than they have been led to believe.



How so?


In a manner similar to how lenses extend the reach of our perceptions, to see clearly now something hardly seen at all without the lenses. So also, a set of conceptual parameters ‘can’ be created that tends toward integration of the layers of psyche, opening us up to realization of much greater correspondences and connections between our categories.

Understanding will produce the sensation of simplicity.
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Re: The Psychology of Cognitive Dissonance

Postby jakell » Sat Apr 12, 2014 4:35 am

I would say that the world we percieve is both simple and complex (ie fractal in nature) and will remain so. People may debate about how much is of this is down to our own cognition and how much is external, but these two can't really be separated easily.

Understanding will involve an acceptance of this dual nature, not an alteration of it. As above, it will be the sensation of simplicity.
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Re: The Psychology of Cognitive Dissonance

Postby BrandonD » Sat Apr 12, 2014 4:35 am

Sounder » Fri Apr 11, 2014 8:58 pm wrote:
How so?


In a manner similar to how lenses extend the reach of our perceptions, to see clearly now something hardly seen at all without the lenses. So also, a set of conceptual parameters ‘can’ be created that tends toward integration of the layers of psyche, opening us up to realization of much greater correspondences and connections between our categories.

Understanding will produce the sensation of simplicity.


"In order to know everything, it is necessary to know a little bit, but actually to know this little, one must know quite a lot."

-GI Gurdjieff
"One measures a circle, beginning anywhere." -Charles Fort
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