Here in the Detroit area, last weekend’s newsmagazine featured a local columnist who was bemoaning the confrontational nature of recent political discourse among friends and acquaintances: “Many fine folks elect not to talk politics” (Marney Rich Keenan). [Note – This article has apparently been purged from the Detroit News site. A 2-17-13 search came up empty.]
 
The writer’s position was basically, you’re not going to change my mind, so let’s not argue. But the undertone was don’t confuse me with the facts; I prefer my own fantasies.
 
Unfortunately, it’s a position that all too many voters seem to take these days ~

“Philosophy experts tell us political disagreements are not so much about policy or facts as they are about values and beliefs.”

 
Sadly, that may be true for many. But ignoring facts won’t change them.
 

 
This go-away-leave-me-alone sentiment reminds me of our teenage son who doesn’t want to escape the self-centered peer-induced bubble he’s currently residing in and face reality. (Is it any wonder that Barack Obama’s vague, feel-good mantra of “Hope & Change” is calculated to appeal to the youth – and the youthfully naive?)
 

 
But after a couple decades of living in the real world, don’t most of us learn that the worldviews of our younger selves were heavily clouded by idealism? That the way we want things to be isn’t necessarily the way they are?

 
As one matures to adulthood, feelings generally give way to opinion informed by facts. At least they used to. Most of us eventually discover that;
 
• There is no Santa Claus
• You can’t spend more money than you make
• Independence doesn’t mean freedom from responsibility
 
But here in the 21st century have we actually become so unmoored from reality that everything is subjective?
 
Less than three hundred years ago, thank God, America’s founders certainly believed in objective truth:
 

“It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth – and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts.
 
Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?
 
For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.”
 
~ Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Convention, 1775

To those “fine folks” who wish to avoid the uncomfortable realities of political debate, I would say that if there are no transcendent truths, you are correct; everything is reduced to personal feelings and beliefs. And there’s no point in even trying to change hearts and minds. If there are no transcendent truths, there are no souls to save. And all is mere illusion.
 
But I don’t believe it.