Halls of ivy

[James E. Clapp]

Laurence Horn wrote:
>
> A more positive spin is that humans love explanations, especially elegant
> ones-- even incorrect or unsubstantiated elegant ones.  I'm not sure it's
> necessarily paranoia; I see it as stemming from the same impulse that leads
> to mythological and, dare I say, religious "explanation" of the otherwise
> inexplicable.

All of the theories advanced for the love of wacky etymological theories have
been correct, including the fact that enough of them are actually true to
make it easy to believe anything.

In the human brain, the line from brilliant insight to paranoid delusion is a
continuum--and often extremely short.  I does distress me, though, that
verifiable scientific and historical fact is *so* widely rejected in favor of
rank speculation and blind belief, with pervasive and devastating
consequences in the formulation of public policy.

It can't be just that humans like stories:  The story of evolution is surely
as interesting as any creation myth.  Historical facts *are* stories: the
relationship of the word "history" to "story" isn't just a linguistic
coincidence!  There is a profound and pervasive anti-intellectualism in many
people's tendency to reject a good story uncovered by a scientist or linguist
or historian in favor of a no more interesting story with no foundation at
all (save the psychologically important factor that a lot of other people
believe it).

James E. Clapp