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One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
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history
rationalization
corruption
society
government
capitalism
power
oppression
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Carl Sagan |
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Rationalization is a process of not perceiving reality, but of attempting to make reality fit one's emotions.
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rationalization
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Ayn Rand |
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Tolstoy said, 'The antagonism between life and conscience may be removed either by a change of life or by a change of conscience.' Many of us have elected to adjust our consciences rather than our lives. Our powers of rationalization are unlimited. They allow us to live in luxury and indifference while others, whom we could help if we chose to, starve and go to hell.
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compassion
change
stewardship
tolstoy
indifference
rationalization
starvation
conviction
hunger
conscience
power
guilt
hell
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Randy Alcorn |
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272406c
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These principles laid down as in variable rules: that one must pay a card sharper, but need not pay a tailor; that one must never tell a lie to a man, but one may to a woman; that one must never cheat any one, but one may a husband; that one must never pardon an insult, but one may give one and so on. These principles were possibly not reasonable and not good, but they were of unfailing certainty, and so long as he adhered to them, Vronsky felt that his heart was at peace and he could hold his head up.
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tool
rationalization
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Leo Tolstoy |
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If someone were to propose that the planets go around the sun because all planet matter has a kind of tendency for movement, a kind of motility, let us call it an 'oomph,' this theory could explain a number of other phenomena as well. So this is a good theory, is it not? No. It is nowhere near as good as the proposition that the planets move around the sun under the influence of a central force which varies exactly inversely as the square of the distance from the center. The second theory is better because it is so specific; it is so obviously unlikely to be the result of chance. It is so definite that the barest error in the movement can show that it is wrong; but the planets could wobble all over the place, and, according to the first theory, you could say, 'Well, that is the funny behavior of the 'oomph.
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theory
imagination
science
explainability
rigor
scrutiny
rationalization
pseudoscience
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Richard P. Feynman |
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The chaplain had sinned, and it was good. Common sense told him that telling lies and defecting from duty were sins. On the other hand, everyone knew that sin was evil and that no good could come from evil. But he did feel good; he felt positively marvelous. Consequently, it followed logically that telling lies and defecting from duty could not be sins. The chaplain had mastered, in a moment of divine intuition, the handy technique of protective rationalization, and he was exhilarated by his discovery. It was miraculous.
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rationalization
sin
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Joseph Heller |
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Everybody makes excuses for themselves they wouldn't be prepared to make for other people.
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legalism
rationalization
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Rebecca Goldstein |
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Many common lies and hypocrisies are like that, just out of the harmony of the moment.
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lying
rationalization
hypocrisy
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Saul Bellow |
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When a pope's election could not be explained rationally, it was attributed to the Holy Ghost.
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rationalization
superstition
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Barbara W. Tuchman |
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In a way, gluttony is an athletic feat, a stretching exercise.
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rabbit-angstrom
gluttony
rationalization
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John Updike |
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"Some wanted to know where they could find girls, wanted us to get Negro girls for them. We learned to spot these from the moment they sat down, for they were immediately friendly and treated us with the warmth and courtesy of equals. I mentioned this to Sterling. "Yeah, when they want to sin, they're very democratic," he said."
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rationalization
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John Howard Griffin |
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What makes humans special is our need to rationalize our actions.
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rationalization
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Barry Eisler |