The Geat Self Delusion

The best and most effective stage illusions are usually extremely simple: it is the only way in which they can work.  The more the mechanics of an illusion are complicated, the more that there is to go wrong and potentially reveal the reality behind the illusion.  Equally, if an illusion appears to have an element of danger in its performance, then you can guarantee that, in reality, there is never any risk of harm to any of the participants.  These things work because we, the audience, choose to deceive ourselves.  It goes beyond a straightforward suspension of disbelief, rather, at one level we know that it is all easily explained, a simple trick, but on another, we don't want to admit that we can be so easily deceived.  So we try to come up with all manner of complex explanations for these illusions, assuming that they must be works of genius, rather than of craftsmen (as those who design them usually are).  I've come to the conclusion with the way in which we view our idols, whether it be in the arts, politics or journalism.  Even when they are exposed as crooks and charlatans - usually quite obvious crooks and charlatans - large numbers of us choose to deny or somehow excuse these facts.  Presumably because we don't want to admit to ourselves that we could have been so easily taken in by them.

Just look at the (often fanatical) levels of support the Trump still seems to enjoy in the US - a figure who surely can have no credibility, having exposed himself as a liar, a misogynist, a racist and, perhaps worst of all, utterly incompetent in the face of an actual crisis.  Here is someone who trades on patriotism - the patriotism of his supporters - yet serially show his contempt for the constitution and even the very notion of democracy.  Yet, a significant proportion of Americans still refuse to acknowledge that this is the true nature of the man they have empowered.  They can't all be dismissed as redneck hill billies.  Yet they seem to have suspended their critical  faculties when it comes to Trump: having given their support, they can't seem to admit that they have been deceived.  it is the same in the UK: just look at the continued devotion of many of the 'Leave' camp with regard to Brexit, even as it becomes obvious that the form of Brexit being pursued by the Tories is a form of extremism which will likely do serious harm to the UK economy.  Because, again, they can't admit that they were deceived by the likes of Farage and Johnson.  The latter is another example of a career being built upon a simple illusion: that his shambolic appearance conceals an intellectual powerhouse of a political mastermind.  After all, he went to Eton and Oxford, he can quote the classics in Greek and Latin, so he must be smart, mustn't he?  Yet all the evidence points to the opposite: his performance in power suggests that his shambolic appearance conceals a shambolic intellect.  Yet, he still enjoys a surprising level of support among those who still insist upon his genius, not wanting to admit that they have been easily misled.

It isn't just on the political right, either.  Just look at the continued adulation in some quarters for Jeremy Corbyn.  Truly, he is the Messiah.  Despite having led the Labour Party to the brink of electoral annihilation.  These supporters refuse to acknowledge hat is self evident: that he was an inadequate leader, lacking any of the qualities required to lead a political party to electoral success.  His indecisiveness and prevarication on difficult issues, his willingness to ignore the opinion of the membership and supporters when they disagreed with him (over Brexit, for instance) and his inability to connect with voters on the doorstep were there for all to see.  All, it seems, except his own acolytes, who still refuse to admit that they bought into an illusion.  Of course, it isn't just politicians who attract this sort of blind adulation - you see it with newspaper columnists and prominent broadcasters who, despite being exposed over and over again as ill informed, biased hypocrites, still have their every word lapped up, as if it were gospel truth, by fans.  Then there are the 'entertainers' - I've highlighted elsewhere the various pop 'idols' who have made utter dicks of themselves during the pandemic - yet they still have their ardent followers.  'You can't condemn their whole body of work based on those of their opinions you don't like', these fans say in defence.  Which is only true up to a point: I find that, more often than not' once I find out that someone holds vile views on one subject, I can't help but start reinterpreting their whole body of work in view of these views.  But those fans just don't want to believe that they were so easily deceived into believing that their idols were sincere and talented.  It isn't so much the 'Great Illusion' than the 'Great Self-Delusion'.