THE ENEMIES
OF REASON
The rise of the West was largely based on the Age of Enlightenment, which replaced superstition, irrationality and baseless dogma with science, systematic doubt and rationality. It also replaced group-think with individual reasoning and insularity with openness. And it made people optimistic instead of fatalistic. “We can fix things”, was the new mentality. “We can figure them out.” “We can make something beautiful.”
However, enlightenment has always had its enemies, from Medieval clerics to the Sturm und Drang movement, which rejected rationality and aesthetics.
It still has enemies today, and in this section, we shall study these. Who are they? Why do they think the way they do? And what damage can they do?
Neo-Luddites and panic-mongers
Eco-fascists and pseudo-scientists
Babblers, cynics, charlatans