Why People Stick to False Beliefs
Fear of the truth is stronger than fear of disease
It’s natural and enjoyable to make fun of people who continue to wear masks. Young men are particularly fun to ridicule.
We tend to attribute this behavior to one of four character flaws
Willful ignorance.
Virtue signaling.
Pride.
Paranoia.
But I would propose a fifth and, perhaps, most frequent cause of denying the obvious: the truth is too horrible to comprehend.
Talking to a woman who continues to wear masks everywhere, she revealed something close to the truth. “My husband needs a lot of medical attention because of his heart, and one of my kids has a genetic disorder.”
I assumed the woman wears masks out of fear of spreading some virus to a vulnerable family member. But she wasn’t done, and my assumption proved incorrect.
“I refuse to believe every doctor I talked to lied to me or didn’t know.”
And there you have it.
To millions of Americans, faith in the knowledge, skill, and honesty of the medical profession is paramount to their being able to live happy lives. They must believe that their doctors would never lie, never intentionally misdiagnose, never intentionally administer dangerous vaccines, never hide a safe and effective cure in order make more money dispensing placebos or worse.
In other words, admitting the truth about the medical industry would shatter their entire worldview. And they are not emotionally or cognitively willing to deal with that.
This same denial of obvious truth seems rampant among Republicans who refuse to believe an election could be rigged, parents who refuse to believe the gender-affirming pediatrician is a pedophile and devil worshipper, military veterans who refuse to believe the US armed forces are being reordered to primarily kill American civilians, law-and-order proponents who refuse to believe the FBI and DOJ as evil as the SS or KGB, conservative Catholics who refuse to believe the pope and his select bishops are Freemason infiltrators bent on proving Matthew 16:18 wrong.
These denier remind me of Bruce Willis in Sixth Sense if, like Willis’ character, they never finally admitted they were dead all along.
Deep down, these people know the truth, though. They simply refuse to live in the truth because the lie is far more comforting. And comfort is their king. They are like the child who comes to know that Santa Claus doesn’t deliver Christmas presents to boys and girls but continues to pretend he believes in Santa for his parents’ benefit. (Or because he’s afraid disbelief will mean fewer gifts.)
I was one of those children. I believe it was December 1973 when I innocently climbed the stairs to the attic and found, under an old bed spread, the very air hockey table I’d been asking Santa for. In a flash, I saw all of the charades of my parents and older sisters in a new light. I recognized all the evidence and felt both foolish and guilty. I also felt very sad. Christmas mornings would never be quite as magic for me or my parents. But, worse, my selfish demand for expensive toys, I realized, put enormous stress on my dad who worked three jobs to feed his family.
So I went along with the charade until after Christmas that year. (Nearly 50 years later, I still feel a pang of guilt recalling that event.)
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.
(1 Corinthians 13:11)
While it’s easy to mock the maskers, the Republicans, the conservative Catholics for refusing to put away childish things, it’s also true that we are all guilty of this behavior in some way. At least, I am.
Do you ever avoid opening a bill because you know it’s going to demand more than you can pay? Ever ignore an incoming call because you know the conversation will be painful? Ever blurt out some non sequitur to interrupt a disturbing thought?
There is a difference between our little denials and the maskers, et al. Most adults who live in denial do so only at their own expense. The maskers, the Republics, the conservative Catholics, on the other hand, deny truths in a way as to harm others.
Prominent people continue to call for the murder of anyone who doesn’t get the vaccines. Pro-abortionists demand the murder of babies in the womb because once upon a time doctors told them fetuses are just non-living clumps of cells. Veterans demand support and tax dollars for the military machine that will one day cart the veteran off to a detention camp.
So, we pretend we believe in Santa Claus because we fear we could not survive in a world without one.
Pray for the maskers. Pray they put away childish things and accept the graces that allow man to move on even with the knowledge that much of what we believed was a lie or that the institutions he’s revered have turned bad. But also pray for me, that I remember to remove that plank from my own eye before probing for the speck of dust in theirs.
At age 65, I have put away childish things. While it has made me wiser, it has also made me sadder and fearful for my daughters and grandchildren. I understand why many prefer to leave their heads in the sand.