Written by sociologist, writer, lecturer and Jewish man, Keith Khan Harris, this article is adapted from his book on Denialism and explores various versions of denial in the past and present to give reasoning behind the choice of denying.
What I found interesting about this article is that it didn’t downright condemn nor try and turn those who are in denial, it merely questions the how and why. The whole article had a feeling of neutral ground for the subject, Harris doesn’t seem to get angry nor frustrated in that people deny things such as the Holocaust for actually happening, in fact, in some parts of the article, it almost feels as though he is sticking up for some of these people and explains why they feel the need to deny it.
The only opinion that Harris gives is as follows “I do not believe that, if one could find the key to ‘make them understand’ denialists would think like me.” He is very accepting of people’s decisions and thoughts, even though we may think they are wrong, they themselves think they are right and even if they were to change their mind, it would be on the core of their own beliefs and ideas.
He concludes that these must be some moral ground for all aspects of ‘true’ denial, comparing them to things so that we may understand why people deny. He states that all aspects of denial have one common feature: Desire.
I found his debate and conversation interesting and enlightening to the subject, I applaud the manner and language of which he has written this article, keeping it open to some personal interpretation. Its an article I recommend.
Article available here: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/03/denialism-what-drives-people-to-reject-the-truth
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