“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth
can stand by itself.”
–Thomas Jefferson
While I was away, many weblogs linked to Michael Kinsley’s essay in Slate on whether reasonable people can differ; I just noticed the pointers and got around to it. The issues he raises are must reading for progressives, who are inherently in danger of respecting the unthinking positions of those who don’t think as they do, because of their embrace of relativism and respect for difference. At the cost of a great deal of “epistemological vertigo,” Kinsley concludes he doesn’t need to trouble himself about people who differ with the reasonable position and, quite rightly to my thinking, raises a call to arms against “this great national reconciliation everyone is so gung-ho about.”
Some of the pundits are glib about how soon the nation will forget the vote-counting debacle, but Dubya will remain the “illegitimate son” for me, “not my President-elect”, “not my President”. It’s been that way before; Ronald Reagan was never my President, nor his toady, George Bush. There’s no “epistemological vertigo” in not thinking like the majority for me, especially since — as you can glean from reading FmH — I have always paid alot of attention to the myriad of ways in which we are in the modern world, but particularly in the US, victims of “cultural entrancement”. As I did in the ’80’s, I think I’m going to be walking around in an America that feels alien and alienating for at least the next four years.
The ire and frustration are wearying, and thence the temptation to yield to reconciliation and ecumenism. But right-thinking people would be sold down the river by that, it seems to me. So onward to hoe the tougher row.
“I
might be one of these misguided people. I don’t think so—but
then I wouldn’t, would I? And it’s also a puzzle what one
should do about this possibility. On the one hand, it’s
important to keep the danger in mind, to take the competition
out for a mental road test before you buy an opinion on some
issue, and to trade it in at any time if you’re persuaded it’s a
lemon. On the other hand, deriving your specific opinions
from a framework of beliefs is a good thing, not a bad one,
and excessive self-doubt can be paralyzing and even
dishonest in its own way. If you can’t decide, maybe you
should try harder. And if you’re sure you’re right … well,
you’re sure you’re right, aren’t you?” — Kinsley
