From Humanoid Faults to Manipulated Consensus, 15
We're reversible:
Our behaviours drive our attitudes, rather than the reverse as it ought to be. There are no effects without causes, and we don't do anything unless we haven't previously decided to do it; be it long before or almost at the same time of the action, whether we like that decision or not, intention precedes and causes action. And our intentions and decisions stem from our points of view and our attitudes. So, usually our points of view and attitudes drive our behaviours, and the whole problem would seem to be only a matter of how sane and honest they are, that is, the quality of our information and the quality of our judgment.
But unfortunately we can be reversed: if we can be made to act in a given way, and kept at it long enough, the behaviour will shape the attitude, and we will take on the attitude that results from that behaviour. Then that shaped attitude will in turn shape our ensuing behaviours, as usual. Sort of another facet of being overwhelmed by quantity, our basic sequence from thought to action can be hijacked from the outside, and from action to thought. So those who one way or another can control enough of our behaviour to shape our attitudes will shape, control and exploit both, and in bulk. Keep us gagged long enough, and we will call insane and help stone the free singer and the free thinker and the free speaker and the whistleblower exposing our gaggers.
But that's not all: more generally, we're prone to swap causes and effects. We're so unwitting and apathetic that we almost never even start along the trail of whys that eventually leads to a real why. Thus, that passiveness prepares us to buy an effect as the cause. A wrong why is not the cause; it may be an effect, it may have nothing to do with it at all. If we're willing to buy a wrong why, then it's a short step to be willing to buy the effect as the cause. If we're willing to buy that the moon is made of cheese, we're quite likely to buy that the ebb and flow causes the moon orbit, too. Once again children have to teach us the wisdom we've forgotten: keep on asking why despite reticence and threats until a real why crops up and fulfils our quest for understanding and solutions.
