virus: Against reason

David McFadzean (david@kumo.com)
Fri, 31 Oct 1997 10:16:14 -0700


Since my worthy opponents have apparently withdrawn from the great
faith debate I'm going to switch sides and argue against reason.

A reasonable list of human qualities might include: Ethics,
common sense, imagination or creativity, memory or history or
experience, intuition and reason. The humanist tries to use
all of these. ... The moment one quality is cut free from the others
and given precedence over them, this imbalance will bring out the
winner's negative aspects.

Thus ethics in power quickly turn into a religious dictatorship.
Common sense couldn't help but subside into pessimistic
confusion, as if wallowing in the mud. Creativity into anarchy.
Memory into the worst sort of monarchical dictatorship.
Intuition into the rule of base superstition. And reason, as we
have seen over the last half-century, into a directionless, amoral
dictatorship of structure.

John Ralston Saul -- The Doubter's Companion

Agree or disagree?

--
David McFadzean                 david@kumo.com
Memetic Engineer                http://www.kumo.com/~david/
Kumo Software Corp.             http://www.kumo.com