Tread lightly on the things of earth

From Bill Berkowitz, Coalition of the Chilling:

In one of those turn the mirror on thyself moments, [Bill] Bennett writes: “There’s nothing that has the power to immunize against thought so much as ideology — and if you’re an ideologue, evidence doesn’t matter, facts don’t matter. You’re an ideologue, which means that you have a priori beliefs which cannot be dislodged by any evidence or any experience.”

Interesting thing is, Bennett is talking about anti-war protesters, people who are displaying the imaginative and behavioral flexibility to press for alternatives to returning violence for (theoretical) violence.

Long time Religious right activist Dr. D. James Kennedy, head of Coral Ridge Ministries, focuses his ire on mainline Protestant leaders whose opposition to the war is “essentially propping up Saddam Hussein’s regime.”

I guess Jesus telling him to love his enemies really ticks him off.

This level of “seeing” make me think of the tragicomic circle of dwarfs near the end of C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle. The dwarfs maintain they are sitting in a dark stable, while those around them plainly see they are in broad daylight. These dwarfs choose not to see the light lest they risk being duped. Practically speaking, they prefer the darkness to (the possibility of) the light. Aslan says of the dwarfs that they are in a prison of their minds’ own making, “so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out” (more on this passage found via Google).

I watched part of Children of Dune today, and was reminded of the Bene Gesserit litany —
Fear is the mind-killer …

Yep, that seems to be true.

My next step:
Cultivate more compassion toward those whom fear grips.