“It is not denial. I’m just selective about the reality that I accept. “ In human behavior, denialism is exhibited by individuals who choose to deny reality as a way to avoid dealing with an uncomfortable “truth”. Collective denial occurs “when an entire segment of society [… ] it moves away from reality in favor of a more comfortable lie. “

In the city of Baucis, one of the invisible cities that Marco Polo encounters, what he finds is collective denial:

“The slender piles that rise from the ground a great distance from each other and are lost above the clouds support the city. You climb them with ladders. On the ground, the inhabitants rarely show themselves: since they have everything they need there, they prefer not to go down.“

Some human beings, such as the inhabitants of Baucis, are based on the tendency to ignore certain facts and to deal primarily with questions that suit their individual needs and wishes. Collective denial is a force more powerful than reason that plays on a selfish self-centered sense of invisibility and invincibility. Reason requires thinking human beings to consider everything in existence, other than themselves, including what might be uncomfortable or unpleasant.

Baucisians continue their love / hate relationship with Earth in some way. Despite their careless behavior, they “show up” on Earth, though rarely. After all, they occupy it. Choosing to live in a culture of physical alienation from the rest of Earth’s inhabitants (not mental alienation as with “downward-facing scopes and telescopes never tire of examining it“), The Baucisians have decided to accept and not deal directly with the palpable and visible fact that there are people less fortunate than themselves who are fighting on Earth who need help, NO “already having everything they needOthers who are not Baucisians, but who are as human as they are.

Denial is a defense mechanism that makes it easier to live a happy and comfortable lie, that is, life in Baucis since their telescopes or spyglasses are oriented only towards their safe environment “staring in fascination at his own absence“Many individuals, such as Baucisians, prefer to change the channel than face the many problems beyond our reach. Such as the fact that, at the time of this writing, almost half of human beings do not have basic needs.

In the invisible city of Baucis, as in many cities that we see or not, human citizens exonerate themselves from responsibility for Earth’s plight perhaps by vilifying others or leaving everything to their deity saying that it must be “the will of God.” “. Their collective human denial when so many refuse to accept that the “haves” play some role in the condition of the “have-nots”; when no connections are made between alienation and denial of, for example, war and poverty. Without empathy, without humanity.“I have learned that exposing yourself, revealing yourself is proof of your humanity.“