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| SapientUniversedotcom |
The aide (Karl Rove) said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore." He continued "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
Ron Suskind, NYT article, 2004
So, it is with heavy hearts we discern the truth: science is no cure for the made up mind, be it climate change, death panels or birth certificates, facts are for wimps and the dimension Rod Serling narrated on has become a functionality:
"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition."
Welcome to the USA: we create our own realities and act on them as if they were true. Engaging in creative obfuscation, we make faith a lie and lies its charleton pimp: never clear on the facts, but Paul Bunyan tellers of tall myths; reinforcing our worldviews only with those we agree with; only opening our mouths to bark the latest sound bite. It's no wonder as a nation we're falling behind in STEM careers; it's no wonder our children's attention spans are short: modeled after our adult Twittering own, with the lifespan of dung heap fleas.
Could we even agree - now in the 21st century - to disagree as well as Sam and Ralph?
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