Fantasyland: Author Kurt Andersen

Above Video: Center for Inquiry / How can we make sense of America’s current “post-factual,” “post-truth,” “fake news” moment? By looking to America’s past. All the way back. To the wishful dreams and make-believe fears of the country’s first settlers, the madness of the Salem witch trials, the fantasies of Hollywood, the anything-goes 1960s, the gatekeeper-free internet, the profusion of reality TV….all the way up to and most especially including President Donald Trump. In this fascinating and lively talk, Kurt Andersen brings to life the deep research behind and profound implications of his groundbreaking, critically acclaimed and bestselling latest work.

Friday, November 25, 2011

The Illusion of Belief

By Steve Rensberry

Does life exist beyond the grave?
Do the eyes lie?
Meaning. Truth. Purpose.
What are they but the mind reaching out?
When you pick up a rock, you know it's a rock.
But you are, alas, a construct-creating entity.
An amalgam of ambiguous forces.
A desire in search of belief.
A framework in need of reinforcement.
So that rock can be anything you want.
A sign. A symbol. A tool.
A deity transformed.
Manifested in all its prophetic glory.
The mind embraces belief like a criminal embraces a scapegoat.
Contingent belief?
Temporary belief? Suspended belief?
Belief in a possibility? A probability?
Not in a million years.
Not in a lifetime.
A mind in need needs belief of eternal proportions.
It needs totality. It needs absolutes.
It needs the physiological release that comes only from total justification.
To sanctify its existence.
To create for itself that which cannot be manifest.
To make the impossible real.
It is not evidence the mind needs but a simple green light.
An all-encompassing reason.
Reality. Facts. Evidence.
What are they really but concepts?
A choice?
Eyed through the lens of subjective interpretation.
Beaten into submission by an infinite ego.