Quote of the Week...from Frank Herbert

Never attempt to reason with people who know that they are right.     ---Frank Herbert.

Frank Herbert is the author of the Dune science fiction series, and the above quote comes from the main character of Leto II in the fourth book, God Emperor of Dune.  It can get to be a little tricky attributing a quote of an author's character to him or her...maybe the expressed idea runs contrary to what they personally believe.  I just felt a little funny listing a nonexistent Leto II as the quote's originator, and it seemed to be a pretty good one anyway...so why not give the esteemed author credit for this one?

I "kind of" agree with the above quote...it can seem pointless to convince someone that their point of view needs correction, or at least some broadening, when they are convinced it is the absolute truth.  In fact, whenever I hear people casually tossing around the word "truth" to buttress what they say or write, I come away from it thinking that they will automatically regard anything I say to the contrary as delusional or a lie.  But not all people who strongly believe something are impossibly resistant to persuasion: this is more about how they think than what they think...

I am not one of the many people around me who have a black-or-white way of mentally processing their world where everything and everybody they experience gets sorted into good or bad categories with no room for nuance and grey areas.  I especially see them come out about politics, where their side...whichever one it is...can do no wrong while the other side is the epitome of evil.   It is this group of folks that I would apply Herbert's (or Leto's) quote to and avoid any fruitless attempt to reason with them...they are long-gone lost, as far as I am concerned, and any agreement with them on a particular point or issue is purely coincidental...