Читать книгу Uncomfortable Ideas - Bo Bennett PhD - Страница 19

Conscious, individual avoidance occurs when a person deliberately plans to keep oneself from exposure to uncomfortable ideas or decides not to entertain uncomfortable ideas. This kind of avoidance is commonly demonstrated through our preferences.

Since the beginning of human communication, we have had some level of discretion over the ideas to which we are exposed. Books, plays, public debates, movies, and radio shows all expressing ideas and exposing us to different points of view, and most of which we could choose to avoid and ignore. Prior to the mid-nineties, our media sources were extremely limited compared to the choices we have today thanks to the Internet. With what is practically unlimited choice, systems have been put in place that allow individuals to only get information from sources of their choice. Some of these systems include social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter, newsfeeds, podcasts, YouTube subscriptions, recommendation algorithms (e.g., Netflix’s “because you watched X...”), and downloadable news apps. With this kind of control over the information to which we are exposed, we can easily avoid sources that expose us to uncomfortable ideas.

Uncomfortable Idea: It’s very likely that your impression of the world is highly inaccurate due to how you are choosing to get your information.

One of the primary characteristics of a cult or cult-like behavior is isolation. Isolation includes cutting social ties with people who don’t subscribe to the beliefs of the group. Some religious groups encourage and even require their members to disassociate themselves with all those outside the group. They often do this by demonizing or dehumanizing the outgroup. The popular Christian website “GotQuestions.org” makes this point clear: “Unbelievers have opposite worldviews and morals” and “The idea is that the pagan, wicked, unbelieving world is governed by the principles of Satan and that Christians should be separate from that wicked world, just as Christ was separate from all the methods, purposes, and plans of Satan.”¹² The belief that nonbelievers are puppets of Satan aside, many studies in social behavior have demonstrated that intergroup contact is one of the best ways to dissolve false stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.¹³ Of course, if a person truly believes through faith that the outgroup is evil incarnate, then attempting to persuade that person that they should seek to understand the outgroup is unlikely to be effective.

Uncomfortable Idea: If an authority figure is trying to keep you from interacting with others outside your group, that’s a strong sign that you are in a cult.