One Theory Explains Why We Can't Have Nice Things
People don't change. Why?
There's this moment in Gone with The Wind after Ashley Wilkes comes home from the war. Everything lies in ruins. People are starving and robbing each other food. Nobody has any idea what to do next. While Scarlett takes care of everyone, Ashley decides what they really need is a fence. Finally, Rhett Butler blurts out what she's been thinking for a long time.
The man she loves can't change.
He's married to the past.
He's a fool.
We're living through a moment like that now. We're surrounded by people we care about who can't change to save themselves, no matter how bad things get. They can't bring themselves to do anything different. They can't operate on a more realistic worldview. They can't break with their political party. They can't wear a mask. They can't demand clean air. They can't update their vaccines. They can't call out genocide when they see it.
Why?
Two social psychologists at Yale proposed a theory to explain all of this two decades ago. It's a theory of theories, a maste…