Skip to main content
Read page text
page 12
– DENIAL – in this book is not only one of condemnation. I continue to have just enough enjoyment of alternative scholarship that I can sense something more in it than just evil pseudo-science. I can feel the audacity, the joys, the predicaments, the wretchedness and – above all – the desire that courses through multiple assaults on knowledge. That lingering empathy means that I have no choice but to recognise the allure of denialism and to face up to the fact that to condemn is not enough. How can one suppress desires so strong? Rather, we have to consider what alternatives are available to the deniers. As this book will show, these are neither easy nor pleasant. They force us to confront brutal di­lemmas and hard choices. I don’t know whether confronting what I call in this book the denier’s alternative can lead to a better way of dealing with our desires. What I do know is that, as I suggest in the final two chapters, we may soon be forced to do so. Something is shifting, something profound. And perhaps, in an odd way, cultivating an appreciation of the mischievous freedom at work in alternative forms of knowledge that I revelled in during my youth might be a better way of facing the dark times ahead than angry pessimism. — This book has been gestating for some time. I owe its existence to my editor, George Miller, who first saw x
page 13
– Preface – potential in the project. I also owe a lot to those with whom I have discussed my ideas as they developed over the intervening decade. More broadly, I owe more than I can express to my wife and children. Having a loving and settled family life has given me both the motivation and the peace of mind I needed to expand my writing and thinking in new directions. xi

Page Text

View plaintext

– Preface –

potential in the project. I also owe a lot to those with whom I have discussed my ideas as they developed over the intervening decade.

More broadly, I owe more than I can express to my wife and children. Having a loving and settled family life has given me both the motivation and the peace of mind I needed to expand my writing and thinking in new directions.

xi

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content