Cognitive Dissonance and the Thousand Year Rule

Cognitive dissonance is the state in which one’s behaviors disagree with one’s beliefs. Psychologically, we all tend to eliminate such dissonance in our lives. For example, I love nature. I believe we ought to do everything we can to preserve the beautiful world we live in, and I hate seeing pollution and destruction of rain forests (for example).

Yet I drive a 4X4 truck that gets 17 miles per gallon.

How do I live with myself??? What a hypocrite!!!

There are a number of things I do to eliminate the cognitive dissonance in this issue. For example, I wrote previously about electric cars, and I proved (in my own simple-minded way) that electric cars are a farce:
– Only a third of the energy burned in a coal-fired power plant is turned into electricity.
– Other inefficiencies in the electrical grid dictate that only 20 to 25% or energy makes it to the charging stations.
– Lithium mining is one of the most toxic manufacturing operations in the world.
– Disposing of spent lithium batteries is an environmental nightmare.
– The carbon footprint to build a new electric car is greater than the extra gas I will burn in my gas guzzler.
– I only ever buy used vehicles so as not to require the manufacture of a new vehicle.

I honestly believe that it’s better for the environment for me to buy a five year old vehicle and run it until it’s dead (my last truck went 260,000 miles and the new owner now has over 300,000 on it and it still runs perfectly) than to buy a new electric car that wastes four tons of coal into the environment for every ton of coal that is turned into usable energy.

This is just one real-life example of a person (me) trying to eliminate the cognitive dissonance from his life.

I believe that there is no such thing as a perfectly-balanced person. We all exist somewhere on the spectrum of strangeness. This can be due to a number of influences which, when taken together, weave an exceedingly complex structure of mental, emotional and intellectual characteristics. In other words, we’re all incredibly unique. And weird. And sure, ignorant or stupid at times.

When viewed in the light of political beliefs, and particularly the political environment we find ourselves in this year (2016), this can be displayed in a bewildering array of behaviors which may, on the surface, look like cognitive dissonance, but in reality are often no more than a fascinating way to view the uniqueness of each of us human beings.

This year I see four primary categories of voters participating in the 2016 election:

1. I know strong Christians who will always vote the Democratic party line, even in the face of severe criticisms like “How can you support the DNC’s official stance on abortion and still call yourself a Christian?”

2. I know strong Christians who will never, ever, in a million years vote for either Trump or Clinton because both are allegedly proven liars, or evil, or untrustworthy, or immoral, or… (fill in the blank). These voters are most likely to vote for an independent candidate to remain faithful to their consciences.

3. I know strong Christians who will vote for Trump, believing either that he’s an okay guy after all, or that a candidate’s Christian faith is not really the issue – we’re not voting for our next pastor, we’re hiring a guy for a job.

4. I know strong Christians who will not vote for anyone because they either believe that God will choose the candidate he wants regardless of who we vote for (based on Daniel 2:21) or it’s not our business to be involved in politics because Jesus was very careful to stay un-involved.

Each of these types is very likely actively involved in eliminating cognitive dissonance from their lives, albeit most of the time it’s subconscious. Their decisions come from an indescribably complex combination of past experiences, education, parental influence, religious beliefs, self-study (which tends to be rather monochromatic since most will only pay attention to pundits they agree with in their efforts to avoid dissonance) and a myriad of other inputs.

The truth is that most of the people described above will never change their minds. Ever. They are totally convinced that they are making what is for them a morally correct choice. There is a small minority that may be influenced by what they see and hear, and that group is often vigorously targeted by political campaigns. They are the “swing voters.”

What’s very interesting to me is that no matter which stance you take, those from the other camps will most certainly strongly disagree, and some of the more vocal ones will tell you just how incredibly wrong you are to think the way you think. They will even evangelize against the other three groups. This, too, is an effort to eliminate cognitive dissonance, because by debating for your position, you are strengthening your own position and emotionally defending the position you’ve taken.

We all do it. It’s in our nature. It takes a very special circumstance and a very special type of thought process to change a mind, especially when politics is involved. When I started thinking about writing this article, I was thinking that this is especially true of American politics, but then I started thinking about the conversations I’ve had with some of my friends in Germany, and I realized it’s a human condition.

Radical terrorists who do suicide bombings for their cause are just as convinced of their righteousness as I am of mine. By what standard may I judge their actions? They’re simply trying to do the same thing as I am—eliminate cognitive dissonance.

As a follower of Jesus, I believe I have a few tools that can help me navigate such things.

For example, I can call upon the law of love of to help me filter through the rubbish. This makes it easy to make a moral judgment on actions like destroying the World Trade Center. Of course it’s wrong to bomb thousands of innocent unsuspecting Americans in the middle of their work day. Of course it’s wrong to walk into an office building during a party and mow people down with guns.

But that begs the question about how many innocents have been killed in the Middle East by American bombs for the sake of oil? War is hell, and no one actually ever wins. Think of the cognitive dissonance suffered by some of our famous war leaders in past armed conflicts! Some of them had to send tens of thousands of soldiers to a sure death in order to win a beachhead and ultimately win a war.

But one of the things I find most fascinating this year is that many who take a particular political stance are accusing those who disagree of purposefully entertaining cognitive dissonance (yes, they actually use that term). I have seen this most often from columnists who accuse those who would vote for either Trump or Clinton of ignoring the cognitive dissonance that must surely be boiling within those poor misguided souls.

Truth is, most of those who will vote in November will not suffer any dissonance at all for the reasons I’ve already stated. Yet the pundits are so absolutely sure of their own convictions that they honestly believe there must be something wrong with those who would vote differently than they themselves would vote.

I would like to encourage all of my readers to rise above all that. My fellowship with others should have nothing to do with their political beliefs. I want to remain a friend to those I call friend, I want to remain friendly to all, I want to love everyone equally, I want to respect others regardless of their political (or religious) beliefs.

Sure, I’ll fail. But I want to at least let the cognitive dissonance rise to the surface where I can see it and where I can identify when and where it’s interfering with my relationships.

Jesus calls us to love everyone. Period. It’s just that simple, but no one said it would be easy.

Now, one more caveat: by “love everyone” I don’t mean I should agree with everyone. That would be literally impossible, and would cause the greatest cognitive dissonance imaginable. I’m saying that we can love everyone regardless of their political, religious, social, sexual, mental, emotional, or physical differences.

That’s what Jesus did. That’s how Thomas Jefferson could write “I have little doubt that the whole of our country will soon be rallied to the Unity of the Creator, and, I hope, to the pure doctrines of Jesus also.” Often identified as a Deist, Jefferson nevertheless understood the pure message of Jesus: love everyone. Jesus himself loved the unlovely. The woman at the well. The woman caught in adultery. Zaccheus. Saul, before he became the Apostle Paul. Peter, who struggled mightily with racism.

If I don’t treat someone like Jesus treated them, then I’m sorry. I ask the Holy Spirit to point out those occasions to me so I can make it right. They will know we are the disciples of Jesus by our love (John 13:35).

At least that’s how it should be.

So I conclude with the Thousand Year Rule, a law by which I will encourage everyone I know to live:

A thousand years from now, what will I think about this year’s election?
About my responses to others in one of the other political camps?
About Muslims, gays, atheists, pre-trib rapture theorists, open theists, young earth creationists, old earthers, Democrats, Republicans, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, James Dobson, Frank Schaffer, Rob Bell, John Piper, John MacArthur, Richard Dawkins, Ken Ham, Franklin Graham, Oprah, Brian “Head” Welch, Sean Hannity, Rachel Maddow?

In my humble opinion, the only sure cure for cognitive dissonance is this:

A thousand years from now, will I be able to look back on my life and honestly say:

I truly loved.