People often ask how it is that northerners move to the South, or Mexicans and other foreigners to the US, for a better life, but then vote as they did whence they came. Don't they know this only ensures that the South will become more like the North or the US more like south of the border? Again, whatever they know, it isn't mainly a matter of knowledge.
Of course, in many cases people do fail to make the proper associations between cause and effect. Yet this is often due to emotional blocks, as the intellect cannot adjudicate facts not given their day in court. Then there is rationalization, when we bend reality for ourselves because we can't bear to bend our wants to reality. The truth is that the cold intellect is generally outmatched by hot emotion, even, sometimes, when we do know better.
*snip*
Failing to consider how often emotion, or our animal nature, trumps intellect is one of the most common mistakes made when predicting man's behavior. George W. Bush was guilty of this when making the case for Mideast "nation building" and saying "All people want freedom." Perhaps. But so does a wild animal in a city zoo; so does a toddler. Yet neither can negotiate civilization without endangering himself and/or others. And this mistake is also apparent in continual Kumbaya calls to ignore the perils of cultural incongruity, such as "All people want the same things."
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