Cognitive dissonance is a "theory that centers on the idea that if a person knows various things that are not psychologically consistent with one another, he will, in a variety of ways, try to make them more consistent" (Festinger, 1962, p.93). While not expressly stated, this theory takes center stage in Robert Caro's 1991 book, The Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon B. Johnson II. Caro presents us with a portrait of a compromised politician capable of destroying his opponents with lies and implications of misconduct while seeking to amass more and more power.
Caro weaves the thread of a wounded and driven man through his work, and in doing so, he balances the cognitive dissonance inequities created by a good man doing very bad things. If at age thirteen his father had not lost all of his money in a bad business deal, Johnson would be a typical man born to a wealthy Texas rancher (Ch. 1, para. 7). Johnson went from lording his wealth over his peers to being the town fool's son while the town took pleasure in his ridicule and torment. Johnson would never be a “laughingstock” (Ch. 1, para. 9) as his father, and he would never be powerless again. Johnson's internal identity of wealth and power stood in contrast to his public identity. This inequity would fuel his cognitive dissonance and produce a man intent on creating consistency (Ch. 1, para. 11). Caro's Johnson is a man shaped by his childhood and justified, if only to himself, in his ambitions.
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