--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
> This is just a café rap inspired by a previous post
> to Richard Hughes earlier today, about whether "demos"
> of people flying would radically change people's minds
> about the TMO. If you didn't like the original rap,
> you aren't going to like this one, so hit NEXT now. :-)
>
> So what is the Big Bad Boogey Man, the thing that most
> people on this planet are most afraid of?
>
> Some are going to say death, but I'm going to disagree.
> That's kind of a given, and most people have found ways
> to either never think about the prospect or to have some
> comforting belief about what death involves.
>
> So, are most people most afraid of terrorism? Of losing
> their jobs or a way to make a living and ending up poor
> and homeless? Of bad things happening to them or their
> loved ones? If you watch the news, it's clear that all
> of these are BIG fears in the minds of a lot of people
> on this planet. But I don't think any of them is the
> biggest fear, the Big Bad Boogey Man himself.
>
> I think that the BBBM -- the thing that most people are
> most afraid of -- is cognitive dissonance. Most people
> are most afraid of changing their minds.
>
> I think that the thing they fear the most is that the
> belief systems that they have constructed or adopted to
> "explain" the world around them and how it works are
> wrong or incomplete, and that if they ever admit this,
> they'll be in a position of Having No Clue, having to
> start over and come up with a *new* belief system to
> "explain" the world around them.
>
> My theory -- and it's ONLY a theory, a half-baked opinion --
> explains SO MUCH of what we see in the world around us,
> and on this forum. Think about the sometimes over-the-top
> ways that people react to the idea that maybe Maharishi
> wasn't right about everything, or that America is not
> exactly the beacon of wealth, happiness, liberty, justice,
> and freedom for all it pretends to be. Some people go
> CRAZY when these beliefs are challenged.
>
> And WHY? Well, I think it's because they perceive -- and
> correctly -- that if the things that these heretics are
> saying about the things that they believe are true, then
> their beliefs themselves are not true, or not complete.
> And if that were so, what then?
>
> The people who react with anger or TBness IMO perceive a
> quagmire of *cognitive dissonance* lurking behind the
> heretics and what they are saying. And they're right.
>
> But WHY do they fear this?
>
> One would think that a seeker of truth would be *pleased*
> to discover that his previous beliefs about a subject
> were incorrect or only partially correct. That would mean
> that the seeker HAD LEARNED SOMETHING NEW. He or
> she would have *grown*, expanded his or her knowledge of
> the world around them. They wouldn't have "lost" anything
> at all, except the illusory certainty that they knew
> everything about the world around them already.
>
> As a Buddhist, what I see in the overreactions some have
> to their core beliefs being challenged is attachment. If
> they were unattached to their beliefs, what would there be
> to fear in having to change them, based on new information?
>
> And yet people DO fear changing their beliefs. They fight
> WARS to keep from changing their beliefs, and to impose
> those beliefs on others.
>
> I think these people are fearful for no reason, and that
> cognitive dissonance is a Good Thing. I think it's the
> thing that indicates progress -- both intellectual progress
> and spiritual progress. If you still believe exactly the
> same things today that you did last year, IMO you have made
> no progress and learned nothing new during that year.
>
> The fearful would say, "But...but...but my beliefs haven't
> changed because they're RIGHT." That could be. Or it could
> be that their fear that their beliefs AREN'T right or
> complete has made them attack or close themselves off to
> new knowledge that might reveal that their previous beliefs
> weren't right ENOUGH. They weren't quite "there" yet.
>
> So, my theory is that the Biggest Baddest Boogey Man for
> most people is the fear of cognitive dissonance -- the
> realization that something you believed could not possibly
> happen IS happening, right in front of you. Or conversely,
> that the things you believed with absolute certainty will
> happen aren't happening. When they are confronted with the
> potential for cognitive dissonance, they react with the
> "fight or flight response" -- they lash out or close down,
> to try to make that potential GO AWAY.
>
> IMO, what they are lashing out at and closing themselves
> off to is the universe trying to teach them something new.
>
Very insightful post, Thanks...
