Cognitive Egocentrism and the Palestinian Cause

The Projection of Intellectual Fantasies

The term ‘cognitive egocentrism’ was long ago applied by Richard Landes to describe the phenomenon of projecting one’s own assumptions and ideals about the world onto others. I first remember reading Landes’ description of cognitive egocentrism in around 2008 or so. More than 15 years later, the notion of cognitive egocentrism remains highly relevant, especially with a considerable amount of discourse about the Palestinian cause since 7 October 2023 (though in many ways that discourse is a continuity of what came before).

Leaving aside questions of rights and wrongs, it seems to me that any political cause needs to be understood and dealt with according to the realities on the ground, and not on the basis of wishful thinking on the part of outsiders. Thus, the Palestinian cause and what represents it are defined principally by the Palestinians themselves who are on the ground in the Palestinian territories and the Palestinian factions that represent them. In turn, on the wider regional scale, the cause is principally defined and represented by the Palestinians in neighbouring countries and the factions that represent them.

When this point is borne in mind, it becomes apparent that some of the discourse about the Palestinian cause in the pro-Palestine protests and wider advocacy in Western countries is well out of touch with those realities, and instead projects its own intellectual fantasies and ideals onto the Palestinian cause.