Abuse Dynamics As An Explanation Of Conformity To Tyranny

In a cultural climate where society has become more aware in the recent years that there shouldn’t be transgressions and boundary violations, it’s a bit shocking to see where we are now with the increasing tyranny growing around the world.

All of a sudden that cultural growth is gone. We’ve regressed to the old dysfunctional and abusive dynamics where government, or even peers, are forcing others to do what they don’t want.

What happened?

We are witnessing examples of abuse dynamics from the micro to the macro.

At the micro level is the individual and interpersonal relationships. As we move along the continuum to the macro level, we see systems forming… families, workplaces, organizations, social groups and society at large.

We see the same patterns of abuse from the micro to the macro.

The systems (from family through society) take on additional and more complex characteristics than the interpersonal relationships because the whole is greater than the sum of all its parts.

One of the most important patterns of abuse to look at is Cognitive Dissonance.

At the interpersonal level, maybe you have a loved one in an abusive relationship. So you sit down with the person and present evidence, facts and logic about the abuse.

You might expect them to have an awakening and realization that they’re being abused and it’s unacceptable. You might think they’ll be ready to take action and leave the abuser.

But that’s not what happens.

What happens is the person doesn’t believe you. They don’t accept what you’re saying. They’re deeply invested in the fantasy of they want to believe in.

So they start coming up with excuses, explanations, rationalizations and arguments to counter every point of evidence you present.

If you insist on presenting more evidence of reality, the person will start to attack you so they can dismiss what you’re saying and maintain the fantasy.

All of the information you’re presenting creates a deep mental conflict with what they want to believe. They want to believe that their abusive partner is the love of their life or that their abusive parent really does love them and wants the best for them.

This mental conflict is irreconcilable.

The uncomfortable stress of this inner conflict and dissonance creates something like a short circuit in an electrical system, but in this case in the brain and nervous system.

This overwhelming intensity of energy causes the circuit breaker to flip, the system shuts down and the mind goes into comfortable denial.

It happens at an unconscious level.

This shutdown is a built-in survival mechanism of the human brain and nervous system but unfortunately it’s also what keeps people stuck in abusive relationships (or tyranny) long after the expiration date.

Dissonance trains the mind to seek states of denial and defense. This makes it very difficult for the person to see reality, even when the ugly truth becomes quite overt.

There really is no waking people up from abuse. There is no sufficient amount of evidence, truth and logic that can be presented to snap a person out of the trance that the Cognitive Dissonance causes.

We are seeing a lot of people in the Cognitive Dissonance now.

Many individuals want to believe that their government wants the best for them, that the government is there to care for them and protect them, therefore governments would never do such a thing as we are witnessing around the world.

This is a fantasy, completely ungrounded in reality.

How does a person come out of that state?

Eventually a frying pan to the head type of lesson takes place, something so shocking that it pierces the denial.

In that moment, the truth becomes a visceral experience, not a logical or intellectual exercise. This visceral experience means a person can no longer unsee what they have just seen.

Stiftung Corona Ausschuss (Berlin Corona Investigative Committee) dialog with Reiner Fuellmich, Viviane Fischer and Meredith Miller.