Tobester - 23 April 2010 12:59 PM

my question is: How come people are so willing to provisionally suspend their judgment in exchange for the promise of entertainment?

We will not easily do it for anything else (except religion but that’s a completely different discussion….)

Heh, I’d say that people actually suspend disbelief frequently in their daily lives in all sorts of situations.  Without it, for example, advertising would be a much smaller and less successful industry.  And how many girls are willing to convince themselves (in spite of all contrary evidence) that their boyfriend really means it when he says, “It’s true, honey, that I only have eyes for you!”?

Perhaps it’s not too different from our general refusal to think about how it is possible at any moment for a big meteorite to plummet down from the sky and flatten us; we need to sort of filter our view of the world around us if we’re going to function in anything remotely resembling a sane and effective manner.