Empire Socialism Part 3
Cognitive dissonance
In Orwell’s 1984 he introduced the concept of double think. Which is the ability to sincerely believe contradictory ideas depending on the context they are needed. It’s actually easy to do this as a human being, people use light switches and medical science while holding to beliefs that are in sharp contradiction to these modern gadgets. As an example of this women are denied free and usable materials to help with period pain because some made up ancient ate an apple in a book and it was a bad thing so women must be punished forever. It’s easy to hold contradictory beliefs that actively harm others, and even yourself, if rejecting them is too difficult or emotionally painful. For less contentious ideas, it could be that they’ve never collided with one another, because the dissonance that comes from this hasn’t been brought to your attention or isn’t important enough to notice.
If a belief isn’t strongly held, or the holder of that belief is a strong advocate of listening to evidence and acting on it, then minds can change. Changing your mind about a robust, or fundamental and as yet unquestioned, belief is incredibly uncomfortable, it can be painful and difficult. Often a mind change may mean a behaviour change, which involves a lot of self reflection and asking other people to point out to you when you slip. This is hard, and not a path for…
