Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions.^[2] Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying. Wikipedia 

I'll be the first to admit to being a victim of this paradigm.  When you are a child, you are shown how the "world works".  Like most people, I bought it hook, line and sinker.  I even defended known falsehoods just because I had been told them and believed them.  Most of the time it's in the form of ignorance and denial.

For everyone in my country, cognitive dissonance is an every day battle.  How many people do you know that have given the world an honest look?  Most people can't because it's in such bad shape that it brings up a whole slew of bad emotions.  In order to avoid these emotions, cognitive dissonance has taken hold.
One example of this happened a month or so ago with a friend.  The debt discussion came into the conversation and he had a graphic with our national debt and whom it is owed to.  1.2 Trillion of this debt is owed to the Federal Reserve and he was saying that if it's owed to a government entity, then we could simply write it off.  I then told him that the Fed is an independent corporation and not an arm of the government.  This took him completely by surprise so he wanted to look into this.  I sent him a few pieces of evidence in favor of this fact.

After a couple days he email's me back saying that the fed is a federal agency but is completely independent of other federal agencies.  He follows this statement up with how our government selects the people to run the board of governors and that the Fed's profits belong to the government.

He then sends me three quotes from an article he found about the Federal Reserve's ownership that are supposed to back up his claim that it's a government agency.

* "The twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, which were established by Congress as the operating arms of the nation’s central banking system, are organized much like private corporations – possibly leading to some confusion about "ownership." For example, the Reserve Banks issue shares of stock to member banks. However, owning Reserve Bank stock is quite different from owning stock in a private company. The Reserve Banks are not operated for profit, and ownership of a certain amount of stock is, by law, a condition of membership in the System. The stock may not be sold, traded, or pledged as security for a loan; dividends are, by law, 6 percent per year."

* "[The Federal Reserve] is considered an independent central bank because its decisions do not have to be ratified by the President or anyone else in the executive or legislative branch of government, it does not receive funding appropriated by Congress, and the terms of the members of the Board of Governors span multiple presidential and congressional terms."
* "The Federal Reserve’s income is derived primarily from the interest on U.S. government securities that it has acquired through open market operations. . . . After paying its expenses, the Federal Reserve turns the rest of its earnings over to the U.S. Treasury."

He then gives me the link that these quotes came from:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10489


I won't dispute a single statement there.  But there are glaring problems with the narrow nature of the statements and quotes.  For in this case, the relationship is like a public-private partnership, much akin to Xcel Energy here in Colorado.  However, if it wasn't independent, then how can we owe it money?  Also, who are the ultimate owners of the shares?

Go to that link, do you notice anything strange about the title of that article?  This is effects of cognitive dissonance.  The article title itself says that the fed is independent and owned by it's member banks. (Remember how the fed is supposed to also regulate them?) Yet he's using quotes from this article to argue against my case

This is how blinding the current social paradigm can be.  We are fighting on the same team and yet due to Cognitive dissonance, it seems like we are fighting against each other.  The only issue between us is how good a totally independent agency/corporation controlling all of our money is. (Remember the dollar is the world's reserve currency, so when I say our, I mean worldwide.)

Maybe he would change his mind if he read this.

For me it has taken three years to be able to come to grips with such notions.  My parents thought I was depressed.  For what it's worth, it is somewhat depressing to figure out all the problems with this world.  Especially the problems that are by design.  Well, I can't ignore the problems anymore.  But you know what? There are a lot of people with great ideas out there.  (Here is one.) We'll have to change our entire lives and it will be difficult for a while, but our children and grandchildren will thank us for it.

Fortunately, as I see it, we're going to be forced into changing our lives at some point in the near future.  Yes it's probably not going to be pretty for most.  However, wouldn't you rather atone for your transgressions rather than throw it on your children and grandchildren, doubling it?  The key to coming out of this is for society to identify it's problems so that we can come up with something people like to call a 'win-win' for everyone. (Yes, it's possible.)

One first step is learning to cope with this effect known as Cognitive Dissonance.