Some Hazards of Rationalization

Truth can be very inconvenient at times. And so, we sometimes try to talk ourselves into what we wish were true, or out of what we wish weren’t true, by admitting all the evidence that would take us where we don’t want to go. In other words, we sometimes first decide what we would like the answers to be, and then work back to make them seem to be what we would like. This type of reasoning has many forms and many purposes, sometimes superficial and sometimes serious. Sometimes we merely let it serve as a salve to our conscience for some small indulgence of our own comfort or convenience. But sometimes it is used to gloss over things more grave than this. For example, a man who takes money that doesn’t belong to him can almost always explain to himself that he was entitled to it, that he was worth more than he was getting, that he needed it worse than those from whom he took it, and so on; by which means he may rationalize himself into thinking that dishonestly is not dishonesty in his particular case, but merely a means of acquiring what ought to be his anyway. Needless to say, such thinking is but the prelude to tragedy. By similar means we can justify, to ourselves at least, every defect of character or conduct and every bad habit, sometimes merely by pointing to others who have worse ones. Also, it has not been uncommon for men to rationalize as to life and all its obligations, according to their convenience, and even to rationalize God out of existence. Thus on almost any issue, in every neglect of duty, in every error, in everything we do that we shouldn’t, in everything we don’t do that we should, and in everything we choose to believe or not to believe, we may mislead ourselves by a form of false rationalizing. But this kind of reasoning neither changes the facts nor alters the ultimate consequences. Don’t jump to plausible or prejudiced conclusions and try to justify them; rather jump to the truth, and stay with it wherever it goes.