"Cognitive dissonance is the excessive mental stress and discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time. This stress and discomfort may also arise within an individual who holds a belief and performs a contradictory action or reaction." I had to look this definition up, but it seems to fit the symptoms presented by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
In his recent speech in a maternal health conference in Toronto he was quoted as saying “You can’t manage what you can’t measure” and announced funds will be provided for "statistics-gathering technology to register the births and deaths of millions of babies every year, most of which go undocumented."
Could this be the same person who heads a government that eliminated the long-form census, insisted that the eventual release of census data be made optional, and bases policy more on dogma than fact? Could it be the same man who starves Library and Archives Canada of resources depriving it of the ability to fulfil it's mandate in the same way as peer organisations in other G7 countries?
31 May 2014
PMSH cognitive dissonance
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2 comments:
It sounded to me like he is starting to say whatever will further his own position or political agenda and is forgetting what he has previously used as arguments to support his policies. Maybe it is just political speak.
it is indeed confusing to listen to a PM who appears to apply different principles to different occasions depending on whose reporters are allowed in the room. There was a very tight control over the media at this event.
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