If Only People Knew What I Know!

One of the rampant intellectual idiocies of our time is the belief, shared by many, that if only other people knew what they know they would share their vision of the world in detail. This operates politically, as when some advocate of Israel or Palestine badgers you to accept some irrelevant fact -- But Egypt was about to attack Israel in 67! The 47 war was just like ethnic cleansing! -- and seems to think that once you know this you will share his opinion about the final settlement.

It operates among scientists and philosophers, too. Case in point, The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World, by Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel R. Primack. The authors, one a noted physicist, argue that if only people knew about the Big Bang and Dark Matter they would stop polluting the planet:

“We need to feel in our bones that something much bigger is going on than our petty quarrels and our obsession with getting and spending, and that the role we each play in this very big something is what really defines the meaning and purpose of our lives,” they write.

It's all so simple!