Chris Brauer Media Project [BLOG]

Who knew it was actually a condition? Like so many of the modern conditions it is always a bit surprising to hear that individual actual experiences can be categorized. I fundamentally disagree with polling on the premise that it is impossible to predict what millions will do from the reactions of thousands. We are all our own creature. On Liberty was one of my favorite texts as a teenager. So back to the condition. Watching the Presidential debates and recent discourse in Europe, Canada and the Middle East, it is impossible not feel cheated, fed a poor quality beef, a great threat in the era of BSE. Turns out that all these politicians are suffering from a condition called "Cognitive Dissonance". At least that's my read from the condition sometimes used to describe s personal state of confusion: "I'm suffering from cognitive dissonance" in the nerdiest of the nerdy worlds.

Here's what it means. From University of Twente in the Netherlands comes a definition of the two key components:

1) dissonance is psychologically uncomfortable enough to motivate people to achieve consonance, and
2) in a state of dissonance, people will avoid information and situations that might increase the dissonance.

So the example is Robert Mugabe claiming the Zimbabwe bottom line looks good, Bush struggling to describe Iraq, Margaret Thatcher on the poll tax, Clinton on Lewinsky, Kim Jong-Il on nuclear weapons, Thabo Mbeki on AIDS, Colin Powell on keeping his pride, Putin in Chechnya, and Gerhard Schroeder on the economy. Treat them with care. They are suffering to a condition similar to the guy at a party who tells terrible jokes and everyone laughs uncomfortably and then tells another stinky joke. It's called cognitive dissonance. I think we must all suffer from it to certain degrees. Some more high profile than others.!

Labels: politics