Cognitive Dissonance

Why this? When you want someone to believe in what you say or write or teach that is in conflict with something they already believe, you run into what is called cognitive dissonance. It is a imbalance of one's head. It is a direct mismatch of a person's reality. It is perceived by the brain with a response that is "immediate resistance."

People who are confronted by some thing that is in direct conflict with what they currently believe they will try and fix the disparity. That correction is not to accept and change what they believe but rather protect what they believe already, just as it is - not to change or accept the idea that contradicts it. This is instinctive and takes a conscious effort, a good deal of effort, to change let alone change the contradiction.

This is true even when the evidence that contradicts the belief is irrefutable. Know where I am going with this you fellow practitioners of my system of karate? I hope by putting a name to the condition that seems to keep us from a united understanding of Isshinryu or any martial system can bring us into a more cohesive system that unifies us all into "one" tribe. A wholehearted effort to unify the particular system of Isshinryu.

One small nail in the tire, getting anyone of disparity in Isshinryu to read and accept this ... ops, cognitive dissonance once again rears its ugly head.

Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously; a conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistencies between one's beliefs and one's actions or other beliefs; a state of tension created when there are conflicts between an individual's behavior and beliefs, or between two beliefs; A psychological term denoting the mental state in which two or more incompatible or contradictory ideas — e.g., enjoying smoking and knowing it to be unhealthy — are both held to be true; etc.