I know it sounds like something from a science fiction novel but its actually an interesting exercise to describe traits of people who live their life under an ideological framework, such as a communist regime or a cult.
There are 3 traits listed which are;
Honesty
Loyalty
Intelligence.
You can only choose 2 of these traits. The premise being that you cannot live your life subject to a controlling, dishonest, morally questionable authority and display all 3 of these qualities.
For example, your intelligence tells you that (insert belief here) cannot possibly be true. If you are honest and intelligent, can you still remain loyal to the organisation? Does your newfound belief make you automatically disloyal?
If you decide to ignore the belief and remain loyal, then you are being dishonest with yourself.
I was using this formula and thinking about myself and people I know in the organisation. It gave me a clearer understanding of why cognitive dissonance exists. The result of a person with average intelligence trying to reconcile a dishonest thought with what they are being told to believe has to cause a problem. If we assume that the average person has average intelligence, then that's a lot of cognitive dissonance in the org.
It also explains why we always hear things like, leave it to God, or, it will all be revealed eventually, and other distractive phrases, because if you can shut down the reasoning and intellectual part of your brain, it makes it easier to be loyal and somehow believe you are being honest with yourself. Any high control group values loyalty above all else, they don't care about intelligence or honesty.