Willing Suspension of Disbelief

".....transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. Mr. Wordsworth on the other hand was to propose to himself as his object, to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of custom..."
This is Coleridge"s classic description of how the reader accepts the fantastic and unreal in poetry (as well as a snapshot of Wordsworth and Romanticism.) I wonder if he has struck on a basic notion in human thinking, like catharsis or plot mirroring in secondary characters in tragedy. Is there an element in us that shields our logic from difficult or fantastic scenes? Does the mind turn its critical eye from the intellectually offensive or absurd? So we accept alliances with former bloody enemies. We look at the huge deficits and don't shudder. The mathematical error inherent in the benefits created in Social Security and Medicare is tolerated although everyone knows that it will not work. We disdain politicians during campaigns yet accept them at face value between elections. Perhaps this is not simple foolishness, perhaps it is the poet in us suspending our disbelief.