Cognitive dissonance reveals some very interesting boundaries between different subsystems in the cognitive process. And of course it does: dissonance is essentially a crashing together of two contradictory or at least incongruous elements, which by their differing natures, cannot occupy the same harmonic space at the same time, and so the crash-relation between those two things reveals as much.
It might also be useful to further break down the concepts of harmony and dissonance, as they are both used so often for their explanatory power, a power which is not often visited in detail. It would take quite a bit of time to get into the physics of sound waves, their interaction, and what that means for our aural and emotional perception of them, but at least this much can be said: a harmony implies that two concurrent elements can coexist indefinitely with each other, whereas a dissonance implies that a concurrence of two incompatible elements can only be resolved through spatial and/or temporal separation, or that one or the other decays enough to be supplanted by the other, or that they both cancel each other out eventually.
Back to cognitive dissonance itself, and what exactly it reveals. Thinking about something and that actual something are two very different things. Actual somethings tend to be accessed when we act upon them in some way, which is connected to how we feel about them as well, whereas thinking can be administrated on an entirely different plane altogether, though this plane ultimately relies upon the plane of action in the end, as it is action and feeling that organizes the very possibility and basis of thought.
But this is very much a two way street, which is what makes cognitive dissonance such an interesting phenomenon. Because thoughts can also be used to organize actions to achieve a certain result as well, so that these separate systems depend on each other and influence each other.
And a thought, as a vessel, can be filled with a feeling or impetus to action. And that vessel must be examined from time to time, to verify exactly what is in it, and whether that accords with what one is feeling or doing at the moment. And thought, as a vessel full of something, can be used to retrieve that thing, or evoke that thing, that feeling or impetus to action.
And thoughts and feelings and actions must be constantly harmonized if one is to be psychically comfortable, and at home in the world. What this means for moving in the world is another thing entirely.
