Straw Man
Let us briefly survey the postmodern intellectual scene as it pertains to the status of immaterialism.
A preponderance of present-day intellectuals share the postmodern perspective. Theirs is an almost militant pluralism. They will join forces in the face of any perceived threat to that pluralism. The cosmology, or, as they would say, the metanarrative that I have been outlining here would be perceived exactly as such a threat were it ever to appear on their radar screens. In my pre-Internet attempts to bring these ideas to the attention of academics in person, I was never able to get beyond their rather understandable ad hominem reactions. They could seldom see beyond what appeared to them simply to be a potential totalitarian threat. The group solidarity among academics is sufficiently strong that no one wants to appear sympathetic with a controversial outsider, even in the very few instances where such sympathies might have actually been present.
Consider the pragmatics of a paradigm shift. All creatures are creatures of habit. It takes a considerable force to cause us to change our habits, even, and perhaps especially, if these are habits of thought. Any existing system has to be widely perceived as broken before there will be any concerted effort toward a revolutionary replacement. Until such time, very many signs of failure will be willfully disregarded. Like the proverbial lobsters, we might well endure increasing heat until it is too late for us to jump out of the pot. This analogy may strike a bit too close to home in light of the one thousand deaths in the most recent heat wave in India. Rest assured that the media moguls will be the very last to have to forgo climate control.
Being the best of all possible worlds, our participation in tribulation prior to revelation will be just as short as possible, but unless Jesus is planning to return soon in a flying saucer, it is up to you and me to pick up these cudgels. Our only stratagem is to foment a public discussion. The previously mentioned deconstructors of the mind will be our straw man until the warm bodies appear.
6/1/02