Glenn Logan scores the Comment of the Day with his answer to the questions I posed in my open letter to Colbert King, the anti-corruption Washington Post columnist who nonetheless regards Congress’s inquiry into a possible Fast and Furious cover-up as trivial. He also penned a worthy candidate for ethics quote of the week: watch for the last sentence, which I bolded. Love it, Glenn!
I’ll have some additions to Glenn’s thoughts at the end; meanwhile, here is his Comment of the Day on the post, “Fast and Furious: An Open Letter To Columnist Colbert King.”
“I think, Jack, that he is guilty of the same malady that affects us all to a greater or lesser degree, despite our best intentions and efforts to tamp it down — cognitive dissonance.
“His faith in president Obama and AG Holder’s character are absolute. He believes — nay, KNOWS — that despite the evidence you referenced, that it is not in either man to do evil, let alone to do a greater evil and engage in a deliberate cover-up. He is as certain of president Obama and AG Holder’s character as he is that water is wet, and the sky is blue. Men of that kind of character simply don’t engage in this kind of base dissimulation.
“Given that, the only possible problem would have to lie with Boehner and the Republicans on the House Oversight Committee. With every single Democrat on that committee opposing the Republican position, this helps him look past the evidence. Who are you gonna believe, good men, or not-so-good men and your lyin’ eyes?
“We have all been guilty of this, I suspect. I know I have. It’s no excuse, but cognitive dissonance may be the single most powerful opponent of genuine objectivity that exists. It’s easier to toss Occam’s Razor in the toilet than use it to carve up your closely-held beliefs.”
Me again. Cognitive dissonance is one of the most crucial concepts to understand in explaining human conduct, and one of the most critical thought distortions for us all to be aware of in controlling our own conduct and maintaining our own values. Even though I think Glenn is right, and even though I have been thinking about and writing about the phenomenon since I learned about it in college, the power of cognitive dissonance still surprises me. The advertising profession lives on it, of course, as do politicians, and it is a primary tool of leaders of all kinds, who use it to control us, persuade us, enlighten us, corrupt us, and change us, often without our realizing it. When we love, admire or respect someone, ideas that we would see as bad coming from anyone else suddenly seem reasonable; acts that we would regard as reprehensible if engaged in by anyone else seem oddly benign, and their values that may once have been alien to our own value system suddenly seem virtuous after all. When we dislike, distrust or disagree with someone, their friends seem suspect, even if they once were our friends as well, and their most logical arguments are unpersuasive, even if we might have accepted them from another advocate.
In the Jerry Sandusky trial, one of the witnesses, an adult that the Penn State coach had molested as a child, said that he reported the abuse to a an adult with authority to address it. The adult told him that his story had to be wrong, because Sandusky “was a good man.” This is the continuing tragedy of cognitive dissonance. It can allow the people we admire to corrupt our judgement and us. The fact that a man with the intelligence, integrity and honesty of Colbert King could fall victim to it should serve as a warning to us all.
Ethics Alarms 
The most important lesson here is not that it happens to others – but it happens to ourselves.
It is so difficult to combat, because we all want heroes. I am cynical and continually shocked by the kinds of things most people will excuse of someone who is thought of as a “role model” or “good person”. However, I have found that it has robbed me of the type of stereotypical “heroes” that I looked up to as a child. I know a lot of very good people who do outstanding things, but I also know their faults. When someone told that Mr. X, a well-respected person in the community known for his generosity and kindness went into a cursing fit at a meeting when someone asked him a question, I didn’t doubt it a bit. I know Mr. X. I know he is incredibly generous and selfless, but he does have a temper and he is not someone you pester like that without an outburst. My heroes have faults, and my heroes sometimes fail, sometimes so disastrously that they are no longer my heroes. I see the appeal of perfect heroes, but I have grown up. I guess some people never grow up.
Thanks for the comment love, Jack.