saving the world, writing my thesis, etc.
i'm going to post this now because i want the feedback, even though it's not as complete as it could be. i may flesh it out as time goes on and if people want clarification.
note: i make some potentially broad and unsupported claims, such as that it's a myth that we're in iraq to spread democracy. because i'm only using these claims for the sake ( Read more... )
note: i make some potentially broad and unsupported claims, such as that it's a myth that we're in iraq to spread democracy. because i'm only using these claims for the sake ( Read more... )
this could probably be clearer and more fleshed out, but i figure i should just post the thing before i lose the motivation to work on it. i'd also be up with chatting about it; i'm probably more likely to respond in conversation than over LJ :).
The thing that strikes me when I read this is that you're using the terms "cognitive dissonance" and "anomie" a lot, but I'm not convinced they're what you really have in mind. The use of these words feels sloppy to me. I say this not merely to nitpick language, but because I'm hoping that pushing you to use clearer words will lead to clearer thinking.
Cognitive dissonance is a condition, not a cause; it's a feeling people experience when thoughts contradict or thoughts and actions contradict. When people feel this discomfort, they look for ways to relieve themselves of it (e.g. they rationalize). But the way you're talking about it, it sounds like the problem is the inconsistency that causes the feeling, not the feeling itself.
shit, you're right. ok, what i meant is as follows:
whenever i talk about people feeling cognitive dissonance, i really mean to talk about people rationalizing their feelings of cognitive dissonance. specifically, i mean to talk about how there may be a big disconnect between people's moral compasses and the indirect effects of their actions, but people are good at rationalizing why their behavior isn't bad or at temporarily ignoring the effects of their bad behavior.
whenever i talk about people feeling anomie, i pretty much mean that individuals feel isolated from others in their given society. "anomie" is heavily used in the field of sociology, so it means a bit more than just isolation, but it'll do for the purposes of this writeup.
And when you say "if people had to watch..." it sounds like what needs to be addressed is lack of awareness - am I getting this right? If that's the case, maybe it's actually desirable to have more cognitive dissonance (if people felt enough of it, they might be motivated to do something).
regarding lack of awareness -- not quite. for example, remy is aware that california is in a drought and he probably does not want to make the situation worse, but he still takes a bath every day. regarding cognitive dissonance -- yes. if remy actually felt uncomfortable enough about the effects his bathing habits had on the environment, it would cause him to change his behaviors.
1. The general problem of inconsistency can be attacked as a whole rather than only in specific instances (inhumanely grown food, homeless people).
i wasn't trying to imply that, though i am kind of inwardly hoping that this might be true, and in some abstract ways, it might be. for example, our culture encouraged people to be more skeptical or more reflective, they might constantly question the far-reaching effects of their actions and, after realizing that their actions contributed to things that violated their moral code, change their behaviors. (though ... a more skeptical and more reflective society might have undesirable effects, like making everyone paranoid, mistrusting, and withdrawn.) also, if people lived in smaller communities, they would hardly be able to rationalize their cognitive dissonance between, say, the food they ate and the way that food was raised. ...though, as you stated, they'd probably just rationalize their moral code to fit their actions instead of the other way around, so they could do things we'd find totally evil. on the other hand, small communities wouldn't have the manpower to do anything as horrible and destructive as our large societies are able to do today.
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