Consistency - We Are Consistently Inconsistent

How can someone:

...be opposed to euthanasia but in favor of the death penalty?

...be in favor of the impeachment of Bill Clinton but not of George Bush?

...be worried about global warming but fly in a big private plane?

...be in favor of the impeachment of George Bush but not of Bill Clinton?

...be opposed to amnesty for illegal aliens but in favor of a pardon for Scooter Libby?

...be in favor of military intervention in Darfur but not in Iraq?

...be opposed to big government but want the government to control public speech?

...be in favor of banning medical marijuana but opposed to government regulation of cigarettes?

...be opposed to judicial meddling, except in cases where you disagree with the current laws?

Seth Godin asks these questions and says the answer is easy, because people are not consistent. If you read these questions, we all fit into this category knowingly or unknowingly.

Same thing goes with the food, we skip ice cream and say we are watching our weight, but we add Blue Cheese or Ranch dressing on salads, which has high fat content.

He gives a few other examples:

We don't pay extra for first class, but refuse to give up a seat to get bumped from a flight, even though the reward is a thousand dollars. We curse the spam that clutters our email boxes but turn around and authorize millions of pieces of junk mail to go out to support our new business.

The local hardware stores curses Home Depot or Lowes for selling hardware stuff near his place, but he goes to Wal-Mart buys clothes and other stuff because it is cheaper than the stores near his.

A vegetarian who makes an oath that he will never eat meat, yet wears a leather belt made of an animal.

Everything is a special situation, everything begs for inconsistency. If all we did was market to computers, life would be a lot simpler, but a lot less interesting.

This fits a majority of us, at least we can say we are consistently inconsistent. I asked Seth about this, so there is no cure for the majority of us? He said there is no cure for any of us :).

What do you think?

Ref: Seth Godin