The Z-man inadvertantly explains the central importance of Christianity to Western
civilization and Western societies:
Stupidity has a cost.
Every society, even small ones, pay a stupid tax, a price for believing and
repeating things that are false. Inevitably, all facts result in some action,
so the falsehood, assumed to be fact, will lead to an action. That action, based
in an untruth, will come with a price. Maybe the price will be small, like
women wasting money on tarot card readers. Maybe it will be high, like putting
women into positions of authority based on the lunacy of feminism.
Further, the stupidity of false notions is not universal. Dumb people believe in ghosts and magic, while smart people fall for things like libertarianism. Belief in ghosts may be silly, but it is generally harmless. Crackpot ideas like communism and libertarianism, on the other hand, are very dangerous. It turns out that who is passing around the counterfeit idea counts for as much as the idea itself. Smart people falling for dumb ideas is far more dangerous than dumb people being dumb.
Like money, there are at least two qualities popular nonsense. One is the volume of it in circulation and the other is its velocity. The volume seems pretty obvious. At the extreme, if everything people think is true is actually false, they will not be around very long before they act in such a way that ends their existence. An example would be the Xhosa cattle-killing movement and famine of 1856. There is an absolute limit to the amount of stupid any people can indulge.
Further, the stupidity of false notions is not universal. Dumb people believe in ghosts and magic, while smart people fall for things like libertarianism. Belief in ghosts may be silly, but it is generally harmless. Crackpot ideas like communism and libertarianism, on the other hand, are very dangerous. It turns out that who is passing around the counterfeit idea counts for as much as the idea itself. Smart people falling for dumb ideas is far more dangerous than dumb people being dumb.
Like money, there are at least two qualities popular nonsense. One is the volume of it in circulation and the other is its velocity. The volume seems pretty obvious. At the extreme, if everything people think is true is actually false, they will not be around very long before they act in such a way that ends their existence. An example would be the Xhosa cattle-killing movement and famine of 1856. There is an absolute limit to the amount of stupid any people can indulge.
The less a society is
devoted to the Good, the Beautiful, and the True, the more it will subject
itself to the inevitable and unavoidable costs of stupidity. The reason that
the wicked always stumble in the end is that their rejection of the True is
applied stupidity, and the acceptance of their self-serving falsehoods relies
upon the very stupidity of the masses that prevents societies from functioning.
