A Carl Sagan quote:
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled
long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no
longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured
us. it is simply too painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -- that
we've been so credulous. (So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the
new bamboozles rise.)
-- Carl Sagan, "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection," Parade, February 1, 1987
It's one of those quotes where you can plug in anything you oppose. Sagan, I believe, was referring to superstition in what he called a "Demon-haunted" world. I suspect that my correspondent is referring to the global warming mumbo jumbo. I'm not sure, and that adds to my appreciation of the quote. It has near universal application and can be used against religion or science [or any other system of belief, for that matter] with equal validity.
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