Dear Aparna,I personally believe that the theory of congnitive dissonance goes a
long way in explaining many phenomena including much of U.S. history.
The notion of cognitive dissonance goes like this: we have beliefs,
emotions and facts. When there is a contradiction between a belief and
facts, or between emotions and facts or between emotions and beliefs
a psychologically and physiologically disturbing dissonance is created
which must be resolved. One could alter beliefs to conform with facts
or vice versa; one could alter emotions to fit with beliefs or vice versa; one could alter emotions to fit with facts or vice versa.
The classic example which explains much of the history of U.S. imperialism and why history books are continually sanitized goes like this: Belief that U.S. system is superior in terms of respect for demoncracy, decency, morality , standards of living, respect for the individual etc versus fact of U.S. government in the name of the U.S. supporting ugly brutal fascist disctators all over the world. How to resolve the dissonance? Could alter beliefs about the true nature of U.S. system or, more likely re-write history to "show" the dictators are really not so bad, not really dictators, are freedom fighters (anti-communist automatically = freedom fighter) etc.
There are so many examples of cognitive dissonance at work in our personal lives as well as on the macro level.
Jim craven
None.
