The Day the Enlightenment Went Out

A telling article from a faculty member of Northwestern University, in mah home town. Garry Wills reminds us of the ideals our country was founded on and reprimands those of us who have forgotten. He makes another in a long string of comparisons of our country to our enemies, going even so far as to call the "War on Terror" a jihad, which is a statement I honestly can't disagree with.

He [the Dalai Lama] seemed to envy America its Enlightenment heritage.

Which raises the question: Can a people that believes more fervently in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation?

America, the first real democracy in history, was a product of Enlightenment values - critical intelligence, tolerance, respect for evidence, a regard for the secular sciences. Though the founders differed on many things, they shared these values of what was then modernity. They addressed "a candid world," as they wrote in the Declaration of Independence, out of "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind." Respect for evidence seems not to pertain any more, when a poll taken just before the elections showed that 75 percent of Mr. Bush's supporters believe Iraq either worked closely with Al Qaeda or was directly involved in the attacks of 9/11.

The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they had experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble those nations less than we do our putative enemies.