Bertrand Russell to the rescue

With thanks to Michael Gilleland, who quotes some choice bits from the writings of scientist and thinker Bertrand Russell—a man blessed with, according to Wikipedia, many a noble title, including The Right Honourable, Viscount, and, if I'm reading this right, Third Earl Russell. Herr Gilleland often cites old texts that have current relevance, and such is the case here. One Russell quote in particular struck me:

If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If [someone] maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction. The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmetic there is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion. So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.

Robert Pirsig, author of the 70s classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, noted the same thing: we're most ferocious about the things we're the least certain of. As Pirsig says, no crowds are out there desperately screaming that the sun will rise tomorrow. Contrast that with some of the three-word slogans being shouted right now.

What Russell failed to anticipate, alas, is that subjectivity has crept into the hard sciences and the mathematical disciplines. I've already mentioned, with the help of John Pepple, that the postmodernist school of thought sees rationality as a tool of the white oppressor. Little by little, truth gets deconstructed into nothingness. That way, no one is oppressed, no one is offended... and no one knows anything.