The growth of conspiracies like Q-Anon demonstrates the rise of anti-rational tendencies in America today. The rejection of science and evidence-based reasoning harms everyone. We lose our most powerful tools to understand, adapt and confront the challenges facing society: pandemics, global warming, authoritarianism, inequality — financial, political, judicial.
The elite scoff at the vulnerable and think they are immune, but no-one escapes the collapse of a society governed by irrational choices. There is chilling historical precedent for what happens to society when anti-rationalism triumphs.
Following the collapse of the Roman Empire, Europe descended into illiteracy and ignorance. By contrast, this was the Golden Age of Islam. There were major advances in math and science. A muslim jurist of that period, Ibn Rushd, wrote in Decisive Treatise, that the revealed texts of Islam were Truth, and the conclusions of deductive logic were also Truth. If they seemed to contradict each other, then the revealed texts must be interpreted as allegorical.
He was accused of heresy. Islamic society rejected his approach and embraced an emerging strain of hyper-religious anti-rationalism instead. What followed was the end of the Golden Age. Science and logical deduction were rejected in favor of religious purity, loyalty and irrational beliefs. The Islamic empire dissolved and the society descended into illiteracy and ignorance.
Everyone should ponder the consequences of anti-rationalism. It is a threat to us all. Societies governed by illogical decisions do not fare well.
We owe a great debt to Ibn Rushd. He was instrumental in teaching the techniques of logic to Western Europe. We should not turn our backs on it.