Tuesday 25 February 2020

"[Some] imagine that some omnipotent giant conspiracy is destroying America, that the rationalisations are hiding some malevolent, fantastically powerful giant. The truth is worse: the rationalisations are hiding nothing but a nest of scurrying cockroaches." #QotD


"When a society insists on pursuing a suicidal course, one may be sure that the alleged reasons and proclaimed slogans are mere rationalisations. The question is only: what are the rationalisations hiding? ...
    "[Some] imagine that some omnipotent giant conspiracy is destroying America, that the rationalisations are hiding some malevolent, fantastically powerful giant.
    "The truth is worse than that: the truth is that the rationalisations are hiding nothing -- there is nothing at the bottom of the fog but a nest of scurrying cockroaches."

        ~ Ayn Rand, from her article 'The Pull Peddlers'
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1 comment:

MarkT said...

She captured this truth way back then, before "conspiracy theories" were probably even a term. I even see the same mistake with people with similar politics to myself. They attribute to some dark organized malevolent force what is usually more easily (and realistically) explained by simple ineptitude and cowardice.

The good news from this is that you're up against those sort of people and you need to beat them (outside a dictatorship at least), you usually can if you put enough thought and effort into it.