Cognitive Dissonance, The 3-Edged Sword, and Haters

After observing the posts, beliefs, and attitudes of the members of this board I have come to several conclusions:

1) There most certainly are paid disinfo agents (PDAs) on the board meant to obfuscate, misdirect, and distract in discussions on topics of truth. Who they are and how many there are is up for debate. These people are not the concern of this thread.

2) There are many people on both sides of the debunker/believer fence who have been accused of being PDAs because of the rigidity and steadfastness to a certain point of view. These are the people whom we will examine.

Cognitive Dissonance:

Festinger's (1957) 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 ...

a powerful motive to maintain cognitive consistency can give rise to irrational and sometimes maladaptive behavior. According to Festinger, we hold many cognitions about the world and ourselves; when they clash, a discrepancy is evoked, resulting in a state of tension known as cognitive dissonance. As the experience of dissonance is unpleasant, we are motivated to reduce or eliminate it, and achieve consonance (i.e. agreement).

www.simplypsychology.org...

Cognitive Dissonance (CD) is used all the time by the dark cabal to get away with things right in front of people's faces. Take 9/11 for example, or the high correlation of drills cooccurring with terrorist attacks. It is too cognitively uncomfortable for people to consider that elements within the government, or worse yet, a secret shadow government, took down the WTCs, so they don't see what is right in front of their faces.

CD creates a drive to argue fiercely for one's point of view despite apparent evidence, to the point where a person is being accused of being a PDA because of the intensity of the argument (if a person subconsciously feels threatened they will tighten their metaphorical bite.)

A more common example of cognitive dissonance occurs in the purchasing decisions we make on a regular basis. Most people want to hold the belief that they make good choices. When a product or item we purchase turns out badly, it conflicts with our previously existing belief about our decision-making abilities.

psychology.about.com...

Elections come to mind in this case, as do peoples pet theories as we all like to think we are intelligent, thoughtful people.

And then we come to the 3-edged sword.

Quoting the Vorlon ambassador Kosh from the great sci-fi series Babylon 5:

“Understanding is a three-edged sword; there is your side, there is the other side, and then there is the truth.”

I let you take a minute to let that sink in...








In other words, what I am saying is that nobody is truly right, everybody sees truth distorted through their own filters and experiences. Anybody that has read my posts over time knows that I clearly fall on the believer side of the argument, but also know truth when I see it in regards to the other side.

When people cling too tightly to their own point of view and pet theories, they tend to become Haters, arguing back and forth from whatever side of the fence they are standing on, yelling across to the other side. If the haters of any stripe would just get over themselves long enough to really understand the first two parts of this post, then we might have something resembling a dialogue and people just might learn something.

I have thought the same thing.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by coyotepoet


Very interesting! thanks for articulating that. Now i have a better understanding of cognitive dissonance, which is a good thing!

ive described this many times through my analogy of "The Wall"

one person stands on each side of the wall.
one side of the wall is painted blue and the other red
guy1 says the wall is blue
guy2 says the wall is red
guy1 takes insult because he infers he is being called a liar and so calls guy2 a liar
the argument escalates and the 2 start war to decide what is true or not

all the while there was a guy untop the wall seeing both sides and telling them that they are both correct and yet neither of them is right. in fact he tells them that the wall is both red&blue but not just red or just blue.

they cast off his admonitions and call him a dualistic hypocritical buffoon.

they continue fighting without acknowledging the truth. which is non-dualistic to begin with.

my advice

stand untop the wall. see that it is both red and blue. walk along the top of the wall in your journey and let the idiots fight until they find their way untop the wall for themselves or die in their war. the war never decides the truth.

it only decides who's consensus wins. but consensus isnt truth because everyone agrees to believe it is so. truth is truth. regardless of how many ppl agree about a certain position on a topic. Any Topic!

Originally posted by coyotepoet

Quoting the Vorlon ambassador Kosh from the great sci-fi series Babylon 5:

“Understanding is a three-edged sword; there is your side, there is the other side, and then there is the truth.”

I let you take a minute to let that sink in...

Funny you should say that.

Getting to the truth is possible but not for our ego-self. In order to get to the truth we have to transcend our ego somehow - transcend pairs of opposites themselves. Even the Vorlon/Shadow pair.

That's why Sheridan had to leave both Vorlons and Shadows behind in order to ascend.

Originally posted by BlueMule

Originally posted by coyotepoet

Quoting the Vorlon ambassador Kosh from the great sci-fi series Babylon 5:

“Understanding is a three-edged sword; there is your side, there is the other side, and then there is the truth.”

I let you take a minute to let that sink in...

Funny you should say that.

Getting to the truth is possible but not for our ego-self. In order to get to the truth we have to transcend our ego somehow - transcend pairs of opposites themselves. Even the Vorlon/Shadow pair.

That's why Sheridan had to leave both Vorlons and Shadows behind in order to ascend.

edit on 17-6-2012 by BlueMule because: (no reason given)

correct!

reply to post by 0mage

one person stands on each side of the wall. one side of the wall is painted blue and the other red guy1 says the wall is blue guy2 says the wall is red guy1 takes insult because he infers he is being called a liar and so calls guy2 a liar the argument escalates and the 2 start war to decide what is true or not

I love this! Great analogy, which I am going to steal and use whenever possible. It's simple and to the point.