These days move me to recite William Butler Yeats’ poem, The Second Coming, but I quote only lines 7 and 8: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” Yet, the best are all around us on both sides and in the middle. Often, they seem to have no strong opinion but in respect for clear reason and verifiable fact. Passion shuts the mind. In strong emotion we run on what we already know or believe. It’s fight or flight. The “crocodilian brain”, that old guard of vertebrate biology dominates. Real thinking departs, leaving only its illusion.
This from Salon Magazine Online via Robin Marty on Care2:
“At a late-night fundraiser for state Sen. Tarryl Clark, Clinton described Bachmann as the epitome of a trend he regards as profoundly dangerous to the nation’s future. ‘Your opponent,’ he told Clark, ‘is the ultimate example of putting ideology over evidence.’
‘I respect people with a conservative philosophy,’ he continued. ‘This country has been well-served by having two broad traditions within which people can operate. If you have a philosophy, it means you’re generally inclined one way or the other but you’re open to evidence. If you have an ideology, it means everything is determined by dogma and you’re impervious to evidence. Evidence is irrelevant.’
‘That’s how I see Rep. Bachmann. She’s very attractive in saying all these things she says, but it’s pretty stupid.’ “
Yes, and she gets that mean, vindictive look in her eyes, like Ann Coulter. I like to look at Ann when she doesn’t have that mean, superior look, but she’s usually on the attack against some anti-Republican spokesperson she affects to despise. She could use a little more weight, physically as well as philosophically. Her facts are usually artifacts of prejudice and strong antipathy. Righties often project themselves on their imagined lefties, who are of course always wrong about everything. Major exponents of class war themselves, they project class war on middle and working classes and the poor until it becomes true: the Self-fulfilling Prophecy. The elephant blames a donkey it stamps on, for trying to hurt its foot!
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