A psychologist friend of mine once told me about a syndrome that they refer to as "Islands of Madness." This moniker refers to individuals who can reason and assess evidence perfectly well about almost all issues and topics, but who are completely unable to do so about particular topics.
Here is a great (but terrifying) example of this phenomenon. One fear is of mine is that the increasing ability of people to self-select their fact sources is going to exponentially magnify this problem.
If you think this is no big deal, remember Timothy McVeigh. And don't think for one second that this phenomenon is limited to the political right - left-wing utopias killed over 100 million people in the 20th century.
Joe H.
Update: This piece by Andrew Sullivan provides another take on the political insanity of Christians with regards to Sarah Palin and Barack Obama - I found it to be a convincing explanation.
Posts
The Years Of Writing Dangerously
9 years ago
No comments:
Post a Comment