Are you disillusioned yet? Ruined? Let’s re-build.
Allow me to indulge in a side rant (or not, you can stop reading now). Clever people, in general, are more likely to be committed to wrong decisions they make, because they are very good at coming up with reasons for why they should keep holding their current worldview, and they’re used to positive feedback regarding being correct in the past, thus empowering their existing biases (which we all have). Being clever does not immunise you from being wrong, nothing does.
Showing a clever person they are wrong, therefore, isn’t necessarily enough to convince them. They can rationalise why they’re actually still right, there are many ways to do so. In real life, this sucks. In our comics, at least, I can get the satisfaction of showing a piece of evidence so absolute, it would change anyone’s mind, even the staunchest supporter of the incorrect worldview. It does require to literally drop the moon on them, though.
In the real world, we can’t do that (and probably shouldn’t anyway, it sounds dangerous), but that doesn’t mean we have to accept the current situation. Changing minds is possible, but it’s different for every person, so we should try different things – emotional appeals, personal examples, addressing a moral foundation they hold dear, etc. I currently believe the best way to minimize wrongness is teaching critical skepticism, which is a skillset, which means anyone can learn it, so I try to help people become aware of its importance and the basics of having a healthy cognitive sieve.
This final chapter of Crystal Heart for me is not about Crystals or dangerous inhuman creatures, it’s about where people and organisations meet and how the former needs the latter in order to be able to do big stuff, yet the latter can make the former do something else, so aligning the two is always tricky, and requires constant course correction. “Democracy is a process, not an event”.
This all takes effort, time and care, and not everyone can afford these, but if you do, please try. I am happy to be contacted to provide assistance.
