Cognitive dissonance can be defined as an irresolvable conflict between what we hold (or wish) to be true and what we know to be true.
There is an old saying that one should never discuss religion or politics. Perhaps this is because these subjects conjure up large amounts of cognitive dissonance.
People hold that their particular brand of religion is true, even knowing it is based on faith. Americans hold that our political system is judicious, while knowing that it is full of corruption.
We hold that our politicians (typically lawyers) are telling us the truth or actually care about us, knowing that most of them don’t have an honest bone in their bodies, or give a rat’s patuti about the common people.
Some hold that patriotism is never questioning your government’s authority, when reality dictates that responsible government requires constant vigilance and demand for accountability by a country’s citizens.
Nothing has generated more cognitive dissonance than the events and official explanation of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Many still hold that the official story of 9/11 is factual, even though the freefall collapse of three buildings hit by two planes is scientifically impossible.
While some might hold that government insiders could never perpetuate such a crime to kill their own people, the evidence, if you look, is overwhelming that 9/11 was an inside job.
Science holds the key to understanding. Just as many once held that earth was the center of the universe, science proved that earth is not even the center of the solar system.
Accepting the freefall collapse of the Twin Towers in 11 seconds or less is “absurd” because it requires us to hold that the massive steel support columns offered no more resistance to the falling rubble than air.
Unless Americans can resolve our cognitive dissonance about 9/11, we will be unable to move ahead as a nation. 9/11 is the Big Lie, the New Pearl Harbor, the pretext for two illegal wars, and the psychological manipulation of an entire nation.
9/11’s aftermath has left us in a state of collective delusion. We all must share the collective guilt of killing and torturing innocent people in retaliation for the attacks. We have permitted the real perpetrators to go unpunished.
Learning the facts about 9/11 can set us free from the bondage of our corporate masters. Resolving this inner conflict and discovering 9/11 truth, that it was an act of state-sponsored, false-flag terrorism can be a road to personal liberation. Most importantly, it can be America’s path to peace.
Bob Jeremiah, Bend
This article appears in May 22-28, 2008.
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Bob, perhaps hiring several skilled professionals to assist you in dealing with your paranoiac delusions is the key to resolving your massive cognitive dissonance difficulties.
Your beliefs are based on your ‘faith’ that a conspiracy occurred, not on facts. As a consequence of that error, your delusions increase, not decrease. The paranoiac ‘feels’ something to be true and then looks to find support for his preconceptions by picking and choosing only those elements of an issue that support his preconceptions. The rational observer would rather examine the facts with a centered and neutral mind and then decide what is appropriate to think by following where the facts lead.
It is easy to get lost when you hold up your own large magnet in one hand and then follow the compass you are holding in the other hand. Paranoia is a bit like a dog chashing it’s own tail… you are on a journey but you are not going to get anywhere.
Twenty nine percent still support GWB and I used to think they were paranoid and delusional beyond belief, but the ‘9/11 truthers’ keep repeating the same things over and over in the face of the facts to prove that the far right aren’t holding the exclusive rights to crazy!
Eleven seconds!! Please, go to one of the many websites with a tape and the time counter and see what really happened. What? Too difficult? Tape was tricked?
Things just didn’t happen the way you claim. There is not one shred of proof of a conspiracy that stands up. This goes beyond astounding.
Jeremiah: “Science holds the key to understanding.”
Ok. Let’s assume for a moment that you actually believe that. (at this point, I’m laughing my ass off!) Wouldn’t embracing that premise require utilization of something a little more scientific than just despising your country? William of Occam might suggest: “One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything.”
Let’s follow that premise into the practice of mathematical modeling, to an item called “Principle of uncertainty maximization,” which goes: “From your data , induce the model which minimizes the number of additional assumptions.”
That is how science approaches the unknown. That is not your method. It appears you are speaking out of several sides of your ill-informed mouth. It is also obvious from the tone and content of your missive that your considerable paranoiac hatred of all things American, vastly outweighs your rather meager scientific perspicacity.
i have unresolved questions that are legitimate about what happened that day. however, i am very, very careful where i draw the line. it is easy to get hijacked by docs like ‘loose change’ and start making all kinds of fast and loose associations. there is a kind of ‘truth check’ line by line analysis of ‘loose change’. it is excellent, as there are many holes in the video. so i continue to have questions on those things that i wondered about immediately when i first saw them without any pre conceptions: the type of damage to the pentagon, lack of debris anywhere. the falling of the towers in more than not, their own footprint. finally, the lack of the ability to get fighter jets scrambled within minutes of all of this.
later, after some sifting i now also include questions about WTC 7’s collapse and the long debris trail of the pennsylvania plane that was supposed to have hit the ground before coming apart.
i draw no conclusions of my own, and would like nothing better in the end then to have this all explained to satisfaction of critical thinkers. i have no idea what went down or why. of that i am sure.
thats it.