Monday, October 18, 2010

When Things Don't Add Up

The term doublethink is used to describe the process of holding two contradictory ideas in one's mind simultaneously, and believing both of them. It's seems strange but we see these kinds of examples all the time. As I mentioned earlier Republicans say they want to cut the budget deficit but keep the Bush tax cuts. Don't they realize that the deficit is the principal cause of the budget deficit?

Another example comes from the latest issue of The Economist which laments the lack of growth in the world economy. Part of the reason why the world economy isn't growing is because governments all over the world are cutting back on spending, which has a depressing effect on living standards. Simply put, you can't have economic growth when standards of living are falling.

This is what happens when people insist on viewing things through a set of dogmatic beliefs, without examining whether those beliefs make sense.

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