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| Searching for a Place to Implant Head in Sand |
One of the most powerful forces at work today in American
politics is denial. Denial of facts is nothing new; it is an intensely human
trait, recognized and studied by psychologists ever since there were
psychologists. [1] I personally am a world class expert in denial, and so, for the first time since this blog started, I am actually writing about something I experience every day.
In a 2011 Psychology today article,
Professor Paul Thaguard explained that denial is everywhere in our lives.
We
fall in love with someone who is bad for us, believing he or she will change.
Many Christians have lives that are hard and
getting harder, but they continue to pray and believe that god will make things
better. When prayer does not work, they pray harder (especially if they want a pony.)
Democrats know that the current Medicare and
Social Security system is unsustainable, yet they refuse to even consider any
miniscule changes in those programs.
We enter a
period of rapid economic growth and investment gurus explain it as a new paradigm for the
economy, not just a bubble. Repeatedly.
Professor Thaguard calls this phenomenon “motivate interference,” meaning that our
goals and desires lead us to absorb evidence very selectively. This mind malfunction allows us to believe an emotion-heavy fact-light belief that is far
from rational.
Bill Watterson famously said
this about denial: “It’s not denial. I’m just selective about the reality I
accept.”[2]
I recently had the opportunity to experience the power of
denial in a personal way. (Yet again.) Last week, I suffered a serious injury on a sailboat,
requiring crutches and in a cast.
In three days time I am scheduled to go
on a long ocean sailing trip in the Atlantic, a trip which I have been itching
to do for a long time. Denying the seriousness of the injury--in fact-- almost
denying the injury at all-- I am keeping the plan in place and am due to be in
the Atlantic ocean headed offshore the day after tomorrow.
This can only be
attributed to total stupid denial, a way of thinking that I know only too well.
But I am not alone. [3]
Denial of obvious facts is individual, but it is also social
and political. History is full of all kinds of episodes of massive
socio-political denial. The phenomenon leads to some good observations:
“You can almost create a formula for it. The greater the
denial at the front end, the longer the term of penance to get free on the back
side. (James Cox)
We went into massive denial because what could we do other
than completely freak out? (Malcolm
Sharp)
The most worrisome aspect of Greenspan’s …remarks is that he
is in denial, and as long as the most powerful central banker in the world is
kidding himself that he knows what he is doing, we all have to fasten our
seatbelts. (Jude Wanniski)
We’re back in denial. If people are saying there isn’t a
problem, that’s part of the problem. (Mary Hodell)
Denial is the number one aspect of medicine. That’s why people
don’t get check-ups. (Larry King)
He has climbed into his
own spider hole of denial. (Joe Lieberman)
We have all kinds of denial going on today. Middle Eastern
radicals and many others continue to deny the Holocaust. [4]
Donald Trump and his gang of birthers continue to deny that Obamas’ birth
certificate is valid. [5]
Oil and coal industry leaders, together with flocks of gullibles throughout the
nation, continue to deny the scientific findings about climate change. [6]
Most interesting of all, politicians, advised and funded by
the real estate development industry, have finally found an ingenious way in North
Carolina to prevent sea levels from rising, at least along their coastline: legislate that it cannot happen and cannot be forecast.
One of the most curious things about denial of big
catastrophes that can be headed our way, is that the closer the likelihood of
the harm, the more powerful becomes the denial of the danger. Studies have
shown that people living downstream of dams and in the floodway
where evacuation would be needed in case of a break, tend to deny the
likelihood of a dam failure.
Interestingly, as you move upstream closer and closer to the dam the
level of denial grows larger. At the very foot of
the dam where evacuation is impossible, 100% of the population denies that it could ever happen.
So don’t anyone get the idea that people are suddenly going to
start listening to climate change warnings from those measuring sea levels and
making predictions based on studies and science. Quite the contrary. As the
dangers from climate change move closer, the denial that it even exists will become
stronger and stronger.
Other explanations will be found for the fact that
houses on the North Carolina Outer Banks are underwater.
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| Outer Banks, NC storm damage (Credit: University of Pennsylvania) |
Possibly an Al Queida
plot?
[1] Denial Is Not A River In Egypt by Sandi Bachom and Don Ross, Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions,
and Everyday Life by Kari Marie Norgaard, Psychology of Denial (Psychology of
Emotions, Motivations and Actions Series) by Sofia K. Ogden and
Ashley D. Biebers, A Species in Denial by Jeremy ,
The Elephant in the Room: Silence and Denial
in Everyday Life by Eviatar Zerubavel, The Politics of Denial by Michael A. Milburn and Sheree D.
Conrad.
[2]
Bills brainy quotes can be found at this
website.
[3]
For an article on how other people deny their injuries, Stripping
Away Denial | Psychology Today.
[5]
One the best websites for this view is http://birthers.org/.
[6] A
good article on the climate deniers appears at
the Salon website.
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