Thought Distillery

Today I started reading The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby. Toward the end of the first chapter, I was struck by her quote of Bill Moyers, a journalist whom I hold in the highest regard. Jacoby uses Moyers to back her argument that a disturbing trend of anti-rationalism, partially fueled by religious fundamentalism, has taken root in American culture over the last quarter century. Moyers, as always, clearly expresses his somber observations:

One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seats of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a worldview despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. The offspring of ideology and theology are not always bad but they are always blind. And that is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.