Beyond Belief
Literary Reflections on Thoughtless Conformity
What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? —Mark 8:37
Sometimes I wonder whether my colleagues believe what they profess. Can they really think that what Hamas did on October 7, 2023, was something to celebrate? Do they actually consider their fellow citizens who vote differently to be Nazis? And what goes through their minds when evidence disproves assertions they have deemed scientific or otherwise irrefutable? When it turned out that the Covid-19 vaccine did not prevent infection or transmission as claimed, was there a moment in which they realized that those they had condemned as “anti-science” had been right? If not, how did they manage to change their minds without acknowledging they had done so?
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Gary Saul Morson is Lawrence B. Dumas Professor of the Arts and Humanities and Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Northwestern University.
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