Humans have an infinite ability to rationalize. This, by definition, is why humans are so terrifying.
Most people think of rational behavior as a positive trait. It’s not, rationality is a tool that humans have to motivate a behavior or action that they have already determined to be the option best suited to their interests.
Since humans operate in good and nefarious ways, and since goodness and wickedness depend on the context as understood by your self, as well as other people, a good rationale can both satisfy the doer and any observers that the behavior is either good or bad when in reality, it’s bad or good respectively.
This is why human history is a mess. When humans study history, they want to know why people behaved the way they did, based on fragments of information. The context is mostly lost, the rationality is lost. Historians fill in the context over time, with biases that they have collected throughout their own life. You imprint yourself on what you analyze from others.
Rationality is blinding. The mind is so effective at justifying beliefs and actions that it constructs an entire universe of justification and bias. This is why people become polarized with complex options, when really there is so much gray area or alternatives, you would be served much better, keeping an open mind for an alternative option. Instead, you dismiss the possibility of new approaches because you built a large foundation of support around one initial option that you liked.
Liking an option has everything to do with it. If you want to change someone’s mind, you do not tell them about your chosen alternative. You need to convince them to analyze their own choice for flaws, ones that cause them pain or grief or inconvenience. You don’t tell them it’s a bad solution, only that you think you’ve found a better one. That your solution doesn’t have the mentioned flaws, and that your solution has additional benefits. You let them marinate on that information, so that every time their option expresses those negative traits you mentioned, they are reminded of your option. Option B. They likely won’t explore Options C-Z because you’ve already convinced them with your testimonial and proved it with your predictions of problems they will have. Once they like your option better, their mind will get busy rationalizing how to justify it and once they do, they will champion this new option you provided.
This is how humans work. Make your preference, the brain will automatically rationalize the basis for your choice. You can do this in arguments. To play devil’s advocate effectively, you must decide that the opposite position is the better one. You will find that your support of an idea you dislike is ready and waiting inside your head if you can temporarily convince yourself it is a good choice. I’m certain this skill is what makes a good debater, along with knowing the rules of debate. In fact, this is also what makes great comedians. They can look at information from an inconvenient angle and find something new to love or hate about it. When you want to return to your previous reality, remind yourself that it was an experiment and your dusty old idea was the better one.
This all being said, people can rationalize any position they choose. This is why I’m afraid of civilization. It’s only civilized when it decides to be. It’s only moral, when it wants to be. Society can be grotesquely altered from the state you prefer because people are easily swayed. What makes people susceptible to being convinced that immoral is moral, greed is good, and violence is essential? Hard times. The fastest way to convince people to change their minds is to explain why their beliefs are hurting them, and wait for them to feel that evidence. The worse their day to day is, the faster they’ll adapt. If you’re idea is the easiest alternative to digest, you’ve done it.
In politics, the U.S. is transitioning from the #1 world power and economy, to one of the world powers and with a good economy. Global trade, automation, high speed digital information, A.I. and a slew of other changes, will ensure that the U.S. position will regress to the mean of a world power, not THE world power. Similarly, white men, white people in general, who were unjustly dominating the U.S. workforce, are also shifting into a more equitable place. Those things are pain, politicians highlight it to try to get you to adopt their alternatives. You could have had a Bernie Sanders or a Donald Trump. The status quo is a weak sell when the perception is that things are bad. Populists lose when their predictions of pain fail, not when their alternative ideas fail. If they guess your pain, and they are right, maybe they’re right about a solution.
The best improvements in history were chosen this way, as were the worst of society’s nightmares. People can be infinitely destructive if they decide to be. There is no bottom to human cruelty once it is rationalized as humane.
There is a second definition of rationalization. One where you take a process and drive efficiency into it. You can play an interesting game by looking at efficient systems, and ask yourself “who is it efficient for”? Usually, when push for efficiency for one purpose, it breaks it for others. In corporate structures, efficiency is typically defined as reduce cost, increase price, move units faster. This is damning to people’s pay, job security, health, mental health, happiness, etc. Those people then contribute to the real world with whatever energy they have left. Who is it efficient for? The consumer of cheap goods would prefer longer lasting, higher quality products, even if a bit more costly. They might want the best price for a premium product but premium products have much higher margins because companies find them to be inefficient to produce. If the margin is the same, the cost to the business is the same, but with lower volume, it’s less efficient.
You can convince yourself to do anything. To be any way you choose. Most people admire people who are perceived to be moral and good. For others they admire, they rationalize why those traits don’t matter. You will likely be judged similarly. It’s easier to be a good person than to convince people to like you in spite of the fact you are a horrible person. Might as well aim to be actually good. A loving, caring, forgiving, accepting, generous type. The traits that are hard to commit to are usually the correct ones.
Most importantly, don’t forget, when things don’t turn out right, and the shit really hits the fan, everybody loves a scapegoat and who better to sacrifice to the gods, than believers of the old way, and especially their leaders, as soon as the new way is rationalized.
On that note, you ever read René Girard or his theory of mimetic desire and scapegoating? Peter Thiel was pretty into it, and now his protegé is our vice president. It’s probably worth a read. Or if you want something more digestible on the topic, read Luke Burgis’ “Wanting”. I guess while I’m throwing out book recs, “The Righteous Mind” by Jonathan Haidt is also interesting about changing people’s mind. He has a fun metaphor about someone riding an elephant or something.