Belief versus Fact

A disturbing fact about human beings is:  People believe the opposite of what they know to be true.

This fact has been true for the masses for God knows how long. 
This fact explains why people act against their own interests.
But I felt that our institutions (government, religious, educational, corporate) were managed by people who could actively control the intellectual clash between belief and truth.
I don't feel that way now.
One listens and reads, looking for signs that the President, the Congress, the bankers and corporate leaders, and university presidents understand what is happening and know what to do.  I find no signs.

Peter DeVries nailed it in 1961 when he wrote "What people believe is a measure of what they suffer."
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