Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The Reason Of Unreason

A quote in a post at Phi Beta Cons caught my eye:

Compare this mentality [of college protests against a speech by Sen. John McCain] to Ortega y Gasset’s description of the “’reason of unreason’” which characterized the rising fascist mindset in the 1930’s:

[T]here appears…a type of man who does not want to give reasons or to be right, but simply shows himself resolved to impose his opinions. This is the new thing: the right not to be reasonable…[the] detestation…of…objective standards…This means …a renunciation of the common life based on culture which is subject to standards, and a return to the common life of barbarism.


Eerie stuff, these outbreaks of elites eschewing both rational dialogue and the logical defense of their opinions.

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