...sind weniger gefährlich als die Angst des Menschen vor vermeintlich gefährlichen Ideen - meint jedenfalls Steven Pinker in diesem wunderbaren kleinen Essay:
In defense of dangerous ideas - In every age, taboo questions raise our blood pressure and threaten moral panic. But we cannot be afraid to answer them.
“People have a nasty habit of clustering in coalitions, professing certain beliefs as badges of their commitment to the coalition and treating rival coalitions as intellectually unfit and morally depraved. Debates between members of the coalitions can make things even worse, because when the other side fails to capitulate to one’s devastating arguments, it only proves they are immune to reason. In this regard, it’s disconcerting to see the two institutions that ought to have the greatest stake in ascertaining the truth—academia and government—often blinkered by morally tinged ideologies. One ideology is that humans are blank slates and that social problems can be handled only through government programs that especially redress the perfidy of European males. Its opposite number is that morality inheres in patriotism and Christian faith and that social problems may be handled only by government policies that punish the sins of individual evildoers. New ideas, nuanced ideas, hybrid ideas—and sometimes dangerous ideas—often have trouble getting a hearing against these group-bonding convictions.”