Being a non-religious skeptic with Libertarian views, I have had an interesting lifetime exploring cognitive dissonance in America. Cognitive dissonance is the feeling of uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time.
Since childhood I have questioned many so-called American ideals and analyzed the reality of these ideals. It started in grade school with the Vietnam War. Being born in 1966, I started school in the heat of the Vietnam War. Many think that children don't have an understanding of war, but I tell you from experience that I knew all too well what war was about. When my parents watched the evening news, I knew exactly what was going on. When the death toll was reported, it saddened me greatly.
In addition to this reality, we were still in the cold war and desperate drills cowering under desks were a regular occurrence. Even at that age, I knew it was futile to cower under a desk if a nuke was deployed. But all students were supposed to be comforted that all of this warfare was proper and justified, and this idea was propagated by the daily pledge of allegiance. From day one, I interpreted this as propaganda and manipulation from the government. I may not have seen through their veil, had it not been for the "under god" part. But as an active, young fossil collector, with a working geological knowledge of the Earth's history, I knew it was propaganda. Not that I understood that word, but I understood the concept. They wanted me to believe that it was OK to sacrifice my life for the supposed good of the country, when I turn 18. They wanted me to agree with whatever they said needed to be done, no matter how many people die. It was and is totally ludicrous. But this is what citizens have been trained to think, by governmental indoctrination.
Fast forward to my graduating high school and being harassed by military recruiters, again and again. They have told lies and false promises and unfortunately, it's getting even worse. But the reason for this is obvious...the government wants to keep the war machine going...but most people don't like to die or have their children die in warfare. Thus some of the best salespeople in the country work as recruiters, slamming people into military conflicts. I really have to question their morality, or do they just have a bad case of cognitive dissonance? I mean many of the young people they recruit, will die for just "another" damn war. The only explanation I have is that recruiters must know that war means possible death but they either deny (or accept) this (cognitive dissonance) or are so hardened that they don't care.
This brings me back to religion, and the belief that there is a life beyond this life. Of course, this is one of the worst forms of cognitive dissonance because it forces people to make irrational decisions based on a supposed almighty. The U.S. government has subtly exploited religion and converted it's underlying importance into nationalism. This is an age old practice of exploiting religious beliefs and it has been the driving force behind most every war that has taken place in the history of mankind. The goals are achieved by adding 'In god we trust" to currency, 'Under God" to the pledge of allegiance, by forcing children to recite the pledge of allegiance, by politicians incorporating religion into their speeches and ideals. This is a clear and present danger to the separation of church and state, which was deservedly so important to our founding fathers.
It makes me wonder how our government can support NASA and the USGS (scientific organizations with a working knowledge of the age of the solar system) while throwing religion at the masses. I guess that would be governmental cognitive dissonance.
The result, is a country of people who for the most part, embrace cognitive dissonance. They get their news from the biased mainstream news. They have been indoctrinated to believe that whatever the ruling elite wants, the ruling elite should get. They believe that the government always knows best and are for some crazy reason, even happy to sacrifice their own life, or the life's of their children. Deep in their hearts, they know that warfare is the most extreme form of violence, and in most cases could be avoided, but their cognitive dissonance allows them to throw out rational thoughts and continue to believe in a falsehood. This is often true even if religion is not a factor.
The good news is that many people are waking up and realizing that they live in a created matrix, which is not supposed to exist, as it currently does. Our founding fathers envisioned this potential problem and the Constitution attempted to minimize these problems. But centuries of eroding their words and pushing new legislation (usually not in the citizen's best interest) has created the current state of affairs, where the Constitution is on the verge of becoming extinct and socialism is now the norm. The latest ploy is the ridiculous bailout we are currently faced with.
I am not a warring person and I don't want the U.S. to be a warring nation. I remember a conversation I had with my mother when I was a young boy. As much as she hated war, she explained that war was good for the economy and people had good jobs. This made little sense to me, because nobody pays you to go to war, the money has to come from somewhere. I now realize that war is very bad for the economy. This money can only come from one of two places, it's either borrowed with interest from another country, or it's created out of thin air...both of which will ultimately cause inflation, de-valuing of the currency and excessive national debt.
For War to exist, it must be systematically sold to the masses, and the public must view it through rose colored glasses. Einstein figured this all out long ago:
"War seems to me to be a mean, contemptible thing: I would rather be hacked in pieces than take part in such an abominable business. And yet so high, in spite of everything, is my opinion of the human race that I believe this bogey would have disappeared long ago, had the sound sense of the nations not been systematically corrupted by commercial and political interests acting through the schools and the Press"
Albert Einstein
