(04-23-2026, 06:53 AM)andy06shake Wrote: The bankers and 1%ers would seem to tick that box in spades.
Then again, without money, trade becomes inefficient, and supply chains crumble.
That was my first thought too, money is front and center of any large-scale societal system, except the bartering/trade system at a small-scale level, which can work under different parameters where government has failed or is non-existent. But I haven't yet watched the OP's video, so I'll do that now and may add more to this post after a few coffees.
Okay, what immediately jumped out is how cognitive dissonance plays a part within any societal 'system'.
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"
Cognitive dissonance within societal systems manifests as the psychological tension individuals experience when their personal or group interests conflict with the stability and legitimacy of existing social hierarchies. This phenomenon is central to
System Justification Theory, which posits that members of disadvantaged groups may paradoxically support societal systems that harm them to resolve the discomfort between their need for social stability and their personal interests.
Key aspects of this dynamic include:
- System Justification: Disadvantaged individuals often resolve cognitive dissonance by embracing the status quo, particularly when they perceive the system as stable and their personal or group interests as weak or less salient.
- Societal Dissonance: This broader concept refers to the collective cognitive and ethical tension arising from the contradiction between a society’s proclaimed values (e.g., sustainability, equality) and its actual structural outcomes or behaviors.
- Resolution Strategies: To alleviate this tension, societies and individuals may engage in attitude change to align beliefs with reality, rationalization to justify inconsistencies, or social change attempts to alter the system, though the former is more common when the system is perceived as unchangeable.
- Evolutionary and Social Function: Rather than merely being a cognitive defect, this dissonance serves as an adaptive mechanism for collective sensemaking, driving progress by highlighting discrepancies between mental models and social reality, thereby prompting updates to societal norms and beliefs." (LLM)
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The following explains a lot!
"
System justification theory, developed by John Jost and Mahzarin Banaji in
1994, is a social psychological framework proposing that individuals have an autonomous motivation to defend, bolster, and justify the existing social, economic, and political status quo. This tendency serves a
palliative function, satisfying underlying epistemic (need for order), existential (need for security), and relational (need for shared reality) needs, even when the system is disadvantageous to the individual or their group.
Key characteristics and examples include:
- Out-group Favoritism: Members of disadvantaged groups (e.g., low-income individuals, marginalized minorities) often exhibit positive attitudes toward higher-status groups and negative stereotypes about their own group, thereby legitimizing inequality.
- Rationalization of Inequality: Individuals may endorse ideologies such as the belief in a just world, meritocracy, or the Protestant work ethic to perceive the current system as fair, legitimate, and inevitable.
- Resistance to Change: The theory explains why social change is difficult, as people prefer the known stability of the current system over the uncertainty of alternatives, often opposing policies that would redistribute resources or reduce hierarchy.
- Complementary Stereotypes: The system is justified through stereotypes that portray advantaged groups as competent but unhappy, and disadvantaged groups as happy but less competent, suggesting that everyone benefits from the current arrangement. " (LLM)
