“Thinking nice”
This little news item from the BBC may help to explain not just why people often ignore warnings about their health or the likelihood of their getting divorced, but also the persistence of other kinds of improvidence – like borrowing money they can’t afford to pay back. It might even go some way to explain the perennial appeal of demonstrably flawed – sometimes even disastrous – religious and political ideologies. Socialism, communism, egalitarianism and multiculturalism all emphasize positivism over practicality; perhaps those of us who argue the other way round are battling with something tangled deeply in the cerebral cortex.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15214080
Derek Turner, 10 October 2011
