Consider This

What a world we live in,
what manifest destiny we have wrought.

This world stands on the brink,
the knife’s edge poised for oblivion.

The scales balanced carefully,
our future’s fate at stake…

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What we face are a set of principles, mutually exclusive, that guide our decisions; all of them.

On one hand, we have the sturdy band of rationalists who have throughout history been committed to inquiry, to reason, and to fact.

Yet on the other hand there is a different sort of rationale, one wholly committed to the heart (as opposed to the head). We see its definition every day. Individuals with utter conviction spewing complete nonsense; and one could hardly dispute that it is pure rubbish! These people, whole-heartedly insistent, refuse to acknowledge exceptionally reasonable science, psychology, sociology and the like, on the grounds of belief.

While I have absolutely no qualms about belief in itself, as a kind of guiding force, when this passionate conviction is presented as fact — something which must be acted upon — it acts only as a tool for power; one that ultimately corrupts.

For applicable examples of this phenomena, you need only look in a newspaper (if you could find one these days); its etchings are scratched all over our headlines, the bile-spewing politicians parroting rumor, speculation, and hearsay (and pure fabrication, if we may be honest) as fact. In a 21st century world, in a secular democracy, in a nation that has contributed so much to human progress (and done, arguably, equal damage), this cannot be acceptable!

We have the “birthers,” contributing so much to public discourse, a broken record skipping for eternity. Though their suspicions have, for most, been found unfounded, the holdouts are somehow gaining ground within a specific portion of our populace.

Sarah Palin, recently freed from her public duties in order to do… something else, has single-handedly taken a big swing at the truth by feeding similarly bizarre claims — this time targeting health care reform — into pseudo-legitimacy. Her supporters are equally to blame, for ignoring the signs that their savior is a phony; that they are all being played.

Does truth have any value? Has postmodernism squandered our sense of direction?

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… there is no answer to this madness.