If you've got a moment, grant yourself the pleasure of reading Douglas Kern's review of Peter Singer's latest book. The review begins:
I'm closed-minded. I've made up my mind on most major issues, and I foresee no likelihood that my most cherished principles and beliefs will ever change. I do not worry that my closed-mindedness presents any handicap to me in the free marketplace of ideas, because my life experience indicates that most genuinely new ideas are stupid. I have little time or mental energy to spend refuting the clever arguments of idiots who contend that black is white, night is day, Communism is misunderstood. As I don't want to die as big a fool as I am now, I search for truth where it is, not where it is not. So I am closed-minded, and proud.Posted by Justin Katz at April 19, 2004 11:44 PM
Isaac Asimov wrote an essay titled "My Built-In Doubter".
After expressing skepticism over some new idea, he was told by his exasperated friend, "You have a built-in doubter!" His reply, "Thank God!"
His point was that any person's experience leads him to believe that some things are more reasonable than others, and those things which appear to be very unreasonable will be doubted. At the very least, they need extraordinary amounts of support before they will be accepted.
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