MLK and Cognitive Dissonance
King’s “I Have A Dream” speech has been characterized as one of the greatest examples of oratory ever recorded.
Today that and several other of MLK speeches will be aired in honor of his memory and accomplishments.
Among other things, the speech is nearly a perfect example of the effective implementation of cognitive dissonance.
“Cognitive dissonance is the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.
In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information. Relevant items of information include a person’s actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things.According to this theory, when two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person’s belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.
Coping with the nuances of contradictory ideas or experiences is mentally stressful. It requires energy and effort to sit with those seemingly opposite things that all seem true.
It has been argued that some people would inevitably resolve the distance by blindly believing whatever they wanted to believe.
In the fable of “The Fox and the Grapes”, by Aesop, on failing to reach the desired bunch of grapes, the fox then decides he does not truly want the fruit because it is sour. The fox’s act of rationalization (justification) reduced his anxiety over the cognitive dissonance from the desire he cannot realise.”
(—-Sifted, summarized, and condensed from Wikipedia)
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
—–Jefferson
Trump’s followers and supporters have become untethered to the tenets and principles of Jeffersonian Equality and Madisonian Democracy.
To them the idea of a multicultural and multiracial America is sour grapes….
“Maybe the biggest problem is that these people are willing to lie to themselves.” —–Koshersalaami
The impact of Kings speech and the nonviolence of the Civil Rights Movement, and the cognitive dissonance created and generated by them, can be felt and heard in the speech given by LBJ as he addressed a joint session of Congress in 1965 just prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965:
It’s a shame and a pity that there is neither an MLK or an LBJ among us today…..
Mostly Monkey
01/17/2022 @ 8:03 pm
Dear MLK, i say on this day and pretty much every day What a grand soul he was and such a gift. He opened eyes. He gave precise and exquisite voice. Ultimately he laid down his life for the betterment of all, for equality and justice. And he did so in poetry with magnificent love.
Maybe
Mostly Monkey
01/17/2022 @ 8:09 pm
I wouldn’t share MLK space to say this: As for the nimrod trumpians i dont believe for one minute any of tjose morons who exalt that pig believe any of their happy horseshit. To my thinking THAT is the big lie. They “believe”.
He entertains them. He tells them its A-ok to be violent and hateful and bullying and liars themselves. And ironically many of them are antivac so theyre dying. Alas.
Ron Powell
01/17/2022 @ 10:31 pm
To believe that what has not occurred in history will not occur at all, is to argue disbelief in the dignity of man. It is not disbelief that is dangerous to our society; it is belief.
—–Gandhi
Koshersalaami
01/17/2022 @ 8:31 pm
“He tells them it’s A-ok to be violent and hateful and bullying and liars themselves.” That’s Trump’s success in a nutshell.
Ron Powell
01/17/2022 @ 10:33 pm
“Maybe the biggest problem is that these people are willing to lie to themselves.” —–Koshersalaami
I like this rejoinder better…
Suspension of disbelief, sometimes called willing suspension of disbelief, is the intentional avoidance of critical thinking or logic in examining something unreal or impossible in reality,
Koshersalaami
01/18/2022 @ 12:53 am
Interesting to take a concept typically applied to entertainment and apply it to politics. That’s really cool. Is it original with you?
Ron Powell
01/18/2022 @ 4:22 am
As far as I know, it’s original with me…
For a number of reasons, it works!