Cognitive Dissonance

2. Cognitive dissonance in the historical retrospective

Every person follows a similar way of world exploration. From the beginning of his life, he asks a lot of questions to other people. People respond in two ways. A person answers a question from a child or refuses to answer, saying something about his inability to answer a given question or saying something like this: "Do not ask me such stupid questions!"

That is the worst scenario because a child thinks that his questions are "stupid," and he should not ask adults (or other people in general) to hide his "stupidity."

At the same time, some people propagate their knowledge, saying they have answers to all questions. They "have a proven way" to do that by reading "a holy book" that answers all possible questions. As soon as a child has nothing in that scope, such propaganda becomes ever successful because a child has no counterarguments against that point of view.

According to the official version of history, humankind has used this method of "knowledge dissemination" for many generations.

A cognitive dissonance protects a given set of categories as soon as another category reaches a given person. Festinger argued that some people would inevitably resolve the dissonance by unquestioningly believing whatever they wanted to believe. Therefore, cognitive dissonance becomes the best aspect that protects categories of any belief in the human mind. There is only one law in that way. Categories of a belief system have to be put in the human mind as soon as possible.

The best example of such a situation is a medieval category of the Earth. They believed that the Earth is the center of the universe and rests on the three elephants. Those elephants also rest on a giant turtle that swims in the endless ocean. Such categories were enough for an average person to "answer" all questions about the surrounding world.

It was never possible to ask a question that disproves that belief. For example, what is the food source for those elephants? Giant elephants have to consume a lot of food. Where does it come from?

That source cannot be found anywhere in a given set of categories. Therefore, those elephants have to become dead after a short time and drop down into the water. Therefore, the Earth has to drop down to the turtle. That is a Dead Elephant Problem (DEP). It destroys a given set of categories in a given belief.

The turtle's food source also does not exist. Therefore, the turtle becomes dead after a short time and sinks into the water. Consequently, the Earth also drops down to the water and sinks without a trace into the endless ocean.

As a result, a straightforward question about the food chain leads to the utter destruction of the entire system of given categories. Therefore, it makes such a powerful cognitive dissonance in the human mind that the person "would inevitably resolve it by blindly believing whatever they wanted to believe." In other words, the person "switches off any logic" and follows anything that a person wants to believe. Cognitive dissonance repeatedly happens in every human mind under similar circumstances, leading to "a so-called stable belief that accepts no changes for centuries."

Moreover, the nuances of contradictory ideas or experiences are mentally stressful. As a result, some people not only refuse contradictory ideas but also take action against anyone who tells them those ideas. That aspect of psychological stress stops civilization's progress all the time.

Festinger mentioned that aspect regarding human psychology. However, dissonance often leads to active actions with the aim of changing "the less resistant element physically." In that case, the person actively searches for a possibility to change or eliminate the source of the dissonance.

In human society, "the less resistant element" appears as a person who ignites the cognitive dissonance in the crowd's mind. As a result, the crowd always tries to eliminate the person who makes the cognitive dissonance.

The best example of such a situation was Giordano Bruno's execution in 1600. He was burned at stake in Rome's Campo de Fiori. The execution was a punishment for his view that the Earth is moving (rotating) and cannot be the center of the universe.

A similar situation repeatedly happened throughout human history, and flames of "holy fire" consumed many independent thinkers claimed as "heretics." In other words,