To the Editor,
On Wisconsin Public Radio, the “Chapter a Day” program recently featured the King of Confidence by Miles Harvey (Little Brown), a non-fiction book about the beginnings of Mormonism in southeast Wisconsin and Beaver Island in Lake Michigan in the 1840s. The leadership developed itself through self-invention and self-promotion as unprincipled and unbridled opportunists with a simple message oft repeated. Their followers had to adapt to rapidly changing whims of the narcissistic leaders with loyalty to one man (lots of turnover at the top and rages at the underlings) instead of the greater good. There was acquired property without adequate compensation, adaptation of similar apparel and adultery (even outside of polygamy). They were charged with fabrication (literally, even counterfeiting) and obstructing the U.S. mail.
How does this come about? Harvey suggests the difference between possibility and authenticity. He references Leon Festinger, who developed the idea of cognitive dissonance. In that and related studies, some at the University of Minnesota, he found there are group pressures toward resolving discrepancies and how does the individual resolve discrepancies at the cognitive level in relation to the group? One looks to the reference group to establish social reality using “instrumental communication.” The disconfirmation of beliefs leads to increased conviction in such beliefs – “fear justifying.”
Occurring in this same period was the publication of Hans Christian Andersen’s Emperor’s New Clothes. See any similarities from 180 years ago today?
Steve Hartwick
Houston, Minn.