Robspur12
Johnny Morrison
I read this quote the other day that struck me as really capturing the Zeitgeist of the moment.
The search for truth is an essential element of democracy … When questions about what is true lose their appeal, and a pragmatism takes hold that is content with what appears useful or effective, then democratic life is weakened … Indifference to the truth leads, slowly but surely, to a descent into totalitarianism. As the philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote, the ideal subjects of such regimes are not so much those who are ideologically convinced, but rather ‘people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (ie, the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (ie, the standards of thought) no longer exist’.”
The quote comes from Pope Leo. I understand that the Catholic Church like many big institutions has a lot to atone for. But I thought that is a brilliant observation on the current plight of Western society.
The search for truth is an essential element of democracy … When questions about what is true lose their appeal, and a pragmatism takes hold that is content with what appears useful or effective, then democratic life is weakened … Indifference to the truth leads, slowly but surely, to a descent into totalitarianism. As the philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote, the ideal subjects of such regimes are not so much those who are ideologically convinced, but rather ‘people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (ie, the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (ie, the standards of thought) no longer exist’.”
The quote comes from Pope Leo. I understand that the Catholic Church like many big institutions has a lot to atone for. But I thought that is a brilliant observation on the current plight of Western society.
