When Limbaugh goes ballistic, sliding over from vacuous venom to unintelligible gibberish, he is driven by an irresistible force – his profound conviction that someone who should know better has strayed from the set of universal truths accepted by all sentient beings. Truth, as he and millions of dittoheads perceive it, is embodied in the insights of men with Mount Rushmore-sized heads who long ago decided all of the great issues, and whose judgements must be honored and obeyed.
This might appear comical were it not for the fact that true believers, from religious evangelists to political extremists like Rush, worship their own ossified positions. All such positions are based on the principle that heavy thinking is best left to our predecessors who were, for reasons never explained, better equipped to examine the nature of truth than today’s mediocre thinkers.
In life we can think for ourselves or we can abandon that effort and leave our thinking to others. Since the latter appeals to extremists, it poses a danger for the rest of us. While certain values constitute existential truths – the sanctity of life and the need for objectivity come to mind – the list of eternal verities is a short one. Thus the need for individual thought arises.
Radical conservatives and radical liberals, for all they contribute to the public discussion, should probably hop the next bus to a nearby black hole. Their positions on every important issue are not only known, but invariable. We don’t need to talk to them, since we know in advance what they will say. Their minds are steel traps where nothing new can get in and nothing useful can come out. If you or a loved one sense a desire to recover from extreme religious or political views, begin by putting forth the effort to think for yourself.
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