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To: XEHRpa
You are quite correct about the seductive psychology involved. The human mind tends to avoid disturbing and dangerous conflicts through "dissonance reduction" that harmonizes perceptions to expectations. One way of doing this is to adopt beliefs that tailor perceptions to that purpose even if those beliefs are transparently untrue.

Trapped in a world of brutal political realities, poverty, failed states, lost wars, and ruined ideals, the Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular are prone to mislead themselves through self-invented false ideas. As brilliantly described by the late Fouad Ajami in "Dream Palace of the Arabs," the Palestinians crafted a collective false memory of a near paradise before dispossession by Israel.

For Palestinians, this vast imagined edifice of false memories of cozy homes and prosperous villages, and of lush olive groves and productive fields -- all cruelly and unjustly taken by the Jews -- is an ever renewing source of nostalgia, shared bitterness, and a defining identity.

Thus hostility toward Israel is part of the fundamental mental framework of even most Palestinian Christians. The reality of course is that the Palestinians lost wars again and again that they provoked and participated in against Israel. The Palestinians then foolishly failed to make a peace that could provide the basis for prosperity and self-government.

Consumed by hatred and hope for revenge, the Palestinians are scorned even by their fellow Arabs for their habitual violence and criminality. Even as the Palestinians subvert their best prospects for their future, they know that all blame attaches -- not to them -- but to the Jews and their American ally.

Meanwhile, the freest, best educated, and most prosperous Muslims and Christians in the Middle East are those who are Israeli citizens, with those in the US even more fortunate. The lesson contained within that simple observation though seems to elude virtually all Palestinians.

62 posted on 09/11/2014 9:14:44 PM PDT by Rockingham
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To: Rockingham

What you describe is exactly what scares me with regard to current events. We are dealing with a large swath of people who spend 100% of their time deluding themselves.


63 posted on 09/11/2014 9:54:11 PM PDT by jurroppi1 (The only thing you "pass to see what's in it" is a stool sample. h/t MrB)
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