Interesting, and written at the same time as the book "Private Truth, Public Lies" by Timur Kuran. I found the book to be highly useful in understanding how pre

Interesting, and written at the same time as the book "Private Truth, Public Lies" by Timur Kuran. I found the book to be highly useful in understanding how preference falsification shapes "absurd" societies. Looks like this article analyzes the mechanisms that lead to "public lies" in more detail. Without having read the article I'd like to point out that societies can be organized along many different and mutually exclusive beliefs. Neither of the beliefs is wrong in the absolute, but a society depends on its members to accept one belief for people to work together as a group. The development of pluralism is a rather new form of organization that is alien to most cultures. It is a triumph of humanism to have reached this point. We're in constant negotiation over which beliefs are acceptable, and which ones would destroy our society. It is a good thing that the field is wide, but it must be understood that the field of public discourse will have off-sides. If the enemies of humanism find themselves shunned this is in accordance with my beliefs of how a society should be organized.