IMPERVIOUSNESS TO EVIDENCE

The above title comes from a sentence in the book THE AGE OF AMERICAN UNREASON by Susan Jacoby, published in 2008. The sentence reads as follows: “The ideological fixations of otherwise intelligent men in America’s Gilded Age [see below] offer a recognizable precursor of the imperviousness to evidence that permeates many ideologies in our current age of unreason“ (an age become all the more impervious to evidence since the ascendancy of Trump/Trumpism).

There is no more obvious testament to such imperviousness than the former President and his GOP allies continuing to claim not only that the 2020 election was stolen, but refusing to accept any and all evidence and court decisions (over sixty) to the contrary….not to mention the sworn witness of former Trump officials testifying before the January 6 Committee.

But I write this, neither to try to reason with impervious Trumpists (which would be a waste of time and an exercise in futility) nor to “preach to the choir” (agreeable as that may be). I write this post simply because I am a writer, and this is what I have a mind to write. And it is about time, because time (over a long life) has changed me from a practicing Catholic and idealist to a near-agnostic deist and cynic. That being the case, what more can I say? So I’ll end this post as a quoter of others whose words I came to see ring true:

“I think God, in creating man, somewhat over-estimated his ability.” –Oscar Wilde

“If God has created us in his image, we have more than returned the compliment.” –Voltaire

“Religion, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.” –Ambrose Bierce

“If there is a God, atheism must seem to Him as less of an insult than religion.” –Edmond de Goncourt

“We must be greater than God, for we have to undo His injustice.” –Jules Renard

“Creator: a comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh.” –H. L. Mencken

“God is not without sin — He created the world.” –Evan Esar

“Since a politician never believes what he says, he is always astonished when others do.” –Charles De Gaulle (Really? De Gaulle obviously never met Donald Trump.)