The Seduction

I believe it was Mark Twain who said, “most people will do almost anything to avoid thinking.” Thinking through a difficult issue requires much work. The information, facts, historical examples can require a lot of reading and study to gather. Exploring several lines of reasoning and pondering their explanatory strengths and weaknesses is a considerable task. Before most people tackle such a task they can easily be seduced by powerful emotions. The collectivist impulses and sentiments of our tribal past are usually not far from bursting forth and blinding us to other ways of seeing the world. Our desire to see ourselves as good people can cause us to advocate policies which make us feel good, even if though the good intentions pave a road to hell. Seduced to the severe detriment of other people.