What I find most disturbing is not the mistakes we make as humans, but the mental gymnastics we use to avoid actually dealing with problems. An article posted

What I find most disturbing is not the mistakes we make as humans, but the mental gymnastics we use to avoid actually dealing with problems. An article posted yesterday on the "Impotence of cleverness" (by Alexander Stern: I was very impressed by it) got me thinking about the curse intelligence really is. Many smart people I know are masters of self-deception, rationalisation, avoidance, whataboutism, oh-dearism... For each shameful act and horror we have quick clever answers, by appeal to "reasons"; process, policy, necessity, authority, security, tradition... and we use those to construct a tolerance of misbehaviour. We feel prouder of that tolerance, - a shield against hopelessness - and our ability to explain-away problems, than of our willingness to challenge them. If only people could apply this intellectual force to radical scepticism and freethinking needed to break out of destructive cycles.