People and Politicians remind me of a person who has a dog which is very sick and needs expensive surgery. The dog owner has only money for the surgery or his vacation.

So, a man comes along telling the owner: “I will shoot the dog for a fraction of the costs.” However, the owner feels bad about this and would never allow his beloved dog to be killed.

So the man says: “Why don’t you give me the same money and I will take the dog “to live on a farm” where it will get all the treatment it needs. Unfortunately, the farm is far away and you will not be able to visit your dog anymore.”

Since the dog owner really wants to go on his much desired vacation but also wants to believe his dog to be treated well, he agrees to the second proposal.

So, people resolve the cognitive dissonance of increasing their wealth at the cost of other people, by electing politicians who lie to them about justice, while secretly taking measures to increase their people’s wealth, so the people can have a good life, ie be rich and feel good about themselves.

Reference:

• Steurer, R. (2021). The climate dissonance theory: Why we have not solved the climate crisis so far. Diskussionspapier / Discussion Paper 1-2021
  Institut für Wald-, Umwelt- und Ressourcenpolitik, InFER – Institute of Forest, Environmental, and Natural Resource Policy, https://boku.ac.at/fileadmin/data/H03000/H73000/H73200/InFER_Discussion_Papers/The_Climate_Dissonance_Theory_Reinhard_Steurer_Oct_2021.pdf