Only a strong emotional bias can give a lightning‐like certainty; it alone can hold reason in leash; it alone can remain impervious to experience and last for a whole lifetime.
People choose to be wrong so that they can play a game that is by definition impossible to lose. They don’t like trying or working hard. They don’t like expectations being placed on them.
[…]Merit has to be sought, just like truth; it is discovered with difficulty; one must deserve it. Once acquired, it is perpetually in question: a false step, an error, and it flies away. Without respite, from the beginning of our lives to the end, we are responsible for what merit we enjoy.
But the anti-Semite wants a respite from responsibility, very badly. He wants to be done. He wants an end to trying altogether.
[…]If you are trying to enforce an eternal privilege, something that cannot be lost no matter what you do, then being wrong, or being bad at things, or treating others badly, is the fundamental test of the security of your status. Being wrong is both a badge and one of the perks of class membership.
[…]Both the desire to enjoy unearned (racial) privilege and the desire to believe in occult forces essentially boil down to the desire not to be tested. One can fail tests.
If you have an invisible, magical essence that makes you special, however — that can’t be taken away by any inconvenient facts.
[…]If people are rewarded for reasons, then anyone who meets these publicly known criteria can gain rewards. If rewards are given opaquely, then they can be safely restricted to existing insiders. Therefore, people who want to preserve cartel privilege have an interest in being mysterious and not making sense.
Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, Psychology | Behavior
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