--- Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:
> At 01:59 PM 4/9/2008, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>
> >WS:] That is rather simple. If they did not like
> >their cars, they would be demanding alternatives.
>
>
> But you just said when they do make demands it gets
> shot down by the
> powers that be.
>
[WS:] That is where the concept of coginitive dissonance comes. Expriments showed that people who were forced to do something they disliked later changed thier attitudes toward it. Here is the reference again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance Please read it.
I think that the concept of cognitive dissonance can explain attitudes that many folk have toward many things in Amerika - not just driving. When encountering things that suck in this country - which are many, anything from health care and social safety net, to declining wages and advancement opportunities, to invasions of privacy and civil rights by corporations and cops, and to the abysmal failure in Iraq - they experience cognitive dissonance between their concept of Amerika as #1 democracy in the world and their unfavorable experience of life in it. As a result of that cognitive dissonance, they change their attitude toward their experience and start believing that "we" have the best health system in the world, that everyone envies "our" freedom, that "we" have the highest standards of living in the world, and victory in Iraq is just around the corner. If they did not change their attitudes toward their experiences, they would have to change their attitudes toward Amerika or continue suffering from cognitive dissonance - which is much harder to do.
Wojtek
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