{"id":1333,"date":"2025-05-06T11:26:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T15:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/potlatchga.com\/?p=1333"},"modified":"2025-05-06T11:26:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T15:26:49","slug":"dr-pangloss-and-the-american-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/potlatchga.com\/?p=1333","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Pangloss and the American Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/potlatchga.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1334\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/potlatchga.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"image-png\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1334\" srcset=\"https:\/\/potlatchga.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/potlatchga.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-45x45.png 45w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>One of the wonderful things about being up here in the woods is that there are no distractions, there\u2019s no noise, no one just dropping by, no place I have to go or something I must do. The solitude gives one time to think; even more, it encourages thinking thoughts about existential matters.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m writing this note as a follow-up to yesterday\u2019s posting about the American F\u00fchrer. It occurred to me that I should have included a strong caveat regarding the American view that it can\u2019t happen here. As Americans we are smug in our belief that the U.S. could never succumb to authoritarianism. For most of us, it\u2019s simply not possible to entertain that possibility; that\u2019s something that happens in other countries. Like Voltaire\u2019s Dr. Pangloss, we are optimistic to a fault.<\/p>\n<p>Pangloss was the pedantic old tutor in Voltaire\u2019s satirical novel Candide who believed that \u201call is for the best in this best of all possible worlds\u201d even after witnessing great cruelty and suffering. He extols the philosophy of Leibniz that everything happens for a reason and even misfortune is part of a larger, divinely ordained plan. Such beliefs suggest the kernels of our naivet\u00e9, on both the left and the right.<\/p>\n<p>I include myself in this characterization. If I was pushed right to a wall with a gun to my head, I would probably still hold to the belief that things would work out because they always have here in America. There seems to be no end to the naivet\u00e9 of the American mind.<\/p>\n<p>After these last couple of days, the caveat of our house guest, Astrid Ferrand from France, haunts me &#8211; her words: \u201cIt happens very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the wonderful things about being up here in the woods is that there are no distractions, there\u2019s no noise, no one just dropping by, no place I have to go or something I must do. The solitude gives one time to think; even more, it encourages thinking thoughts about existential matters. I\u2019m writing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dr. Pangloss and the American Mind - Potlatch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/potlatchga.com\/?p=1333\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Pangloss and the American Mind - Potlatch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the wonderful things about being up here in the woods is that there are no distractions, there\u2019s no noise, no one just dropping by, no place I have to go or something I must do. The solitude gives one time to think; even more, it encourages thinking thoughts about existential matters. 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