In High School I had my first experiences with 'Bible Bashing.' For several months my Baptist friends and I would muster Bible verses we felt supported our positions and undermined the others. It was fun for a bit, but generated a little heat and very little real light. Over time I found any actual religious conversations of value would occur when one or the other would listen to those experiences that were the actual underpinnings of our respective religious commitments.
In my Micro-Economics class I was introduced to "homo economicus," the rational sorter of personal benefit who would choose the most lucrative path in any given situation. Economics these days finds the model considerably less useful than they once thought.
In politics I hear a lot of facts and historical precedents recited, and careful arguments mustered, but I detect very few signs of any one really listening to each other. Like Bible Bashers, the political disputants seem largely ignorant of the fact that political convictions are seldom reached through careful logical procedures.
A couple of quotes I've run across -
"In times when passions are beginning to take charge of the conduct of human affairs, One should pay less attention to what men of experience and common sense are thinking than to what is preoccupying the imagination of dreamers."
Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy in America
"The heart has its reasons, that reason knows not of."
Blaise Pascal
Pensees
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