Progress

I'm proud of myself.

The Editorial Board of The New York Times has started publishing a blog. Now, I don't go there often, just when something catches my eye. Well, the other day, there was a post about some website somewhere called govermentisgood.com, which led to a discussion of the merits of government that has been, to my mind, pretty poorly reasoned on both sides of the question. And despite the shallow and merely prejudiced views on display, I have not written a comment. Oh, I was tempted a couple of times, and even started to at least twice, but I always navigated away. After all, what would have been the point?

There's that line from The Beatles's song Eleanor Rigby, "No one was saved." That kind of sums up my feeling about these sorts of debates. At the end of the day, no matter how compelling or well-reasoned one's arguments, no one will be saved. (And just for the record, the person doing the best reasoning in that NYT discussion seemed to be anti-government, although he might have just been against that website, which did sound rather dippy.) People argue mostly from belief rather than logic so it always devolves down to the "Says you/Your mother wears Army boots" level of discussion.

True discussion involves a give-and-take, an exchange of ideas. It is an opportunity for learning. Unfortunately, the current fashion in debate is to assume the faultlessness of one's beliefs and to scorn the beliefs of all others. It's a celebration of ignorance and willfulness, and it has moved me to a profound cynicism. And that is a true shame because idealism was so much more fun.