The Socratic trade seems most worrisome when it’s not made symmetrically by both sides to a dispute. We all wish the trade were made more often—by our adversaries. But people naturally fear that if they ask hard questions and their enemies don’t, the enemies will always win. It looks like unilateral disarmament. Thoughtful Socratic types will be overrun by Nazi types who show no doubts and have hordes of followers. We will have Yeats’s result: “the best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity.” If you aren’t absolutely sure about things, what are you fighting for
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