The comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought

Forty-five years ago today, JFK, speaking to the graduating class at Yale, said, "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived, and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic ... Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." He urged the students to "move on from the reassuring repetition of stale phrases to a new, difficult, but essential confrontation with reality." Kennedy was urging the students not to let the establishment, which he represented, get away with anything. Submit its rhetoric to the fiercest scrutiny. Think for yourself. It was an invitation that reflected his own education, two years earlier, in the wisdom of doubt.

Today we have a president who experiences no doubt. Without doubt there is no introspection and no self knowledge. Myth replaces analysis. We owe it to ourselves to reject the easy myth and to think independently. Bush and his supporters tirelessly repeat the talking points assigned to them by Mr. Rove. The same stale phrases are repeated relentlessly until some people believe them to be true.

When you hear the same words over and over; beware. You are hearing myths being made.