One lesson that I should ahve learned by now is that the most dangerous person is the fanatic -- he who blindly follows an ideal and she who is limited by her world-view. Ideals are dangerous, fanaticism leads to persecution, believing in one thing means rejecting and suppressing all others. These are opinions that I have held -- ideas that I always thought should be encouraged by my liberal arts education at Dartmouth.
Now, I disagree with myself.
Each individual has an ideal hidden within him somewhere. Whether they be hopes for a successful career, a stable family, spiritual fulfillment or sexual gratification, there are many impulses that drive us each day. It is not those who profess to believe in something that are dangerous, it is those who do not. As G.K. Chesterton put it, "Ideas are dangerous, but the man to whom they are the least dangerous is the man of ideas. He is acquainted with ideas and moves among them like a lion-tamer. Ideas are dangerous, but the man to whom they are the most dangerous is the man of no ideas."
This fact should be obvious to all of us as we pursue our studies here at Dartmouth in whatever major we have chosen and in all of the classes that we take. Agree with them or disagree with them as you wish, but do not deny that the men and women whose works and lives we are studying were dreamers, idealists and visionaries. So are we. Or maybe we should "grow up" and deal with "reality."
"Yes, I was once idealistic like yourself. I once held strong opinions and sought to change the world. However, I realized that I was fooling myself. I realized that ideals are impractical. I faced the real world. Deny it if you like, but your idealism will fade as you grow up and mature."
This standard line, oft-repeated and partially digested by most of us, a belief that we may view as inevitable due to its proven truth, is wrong and is more dangerous than any ideal I, or any other person, may ever adhere to.
Ideals are dangerous when nobody believes in them save one or two determined individuals. The lesson we should learn from history is not that bigotry and oppression are caused by people believing in something, but rather are caused by those who don't know what to believe in and are consequently vulnerable to believing in anything.
Do not be indifferent! G.K. Chesterton summed up his view on this matter so forcefully that I cannot disagree with him when he says, "Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions. It is the resistance offered to definite ideas by that vague bulk of people whose ideas are indefinite to excess. This frenzy of the indifferent is in truth a terrible thing . . . Bigotry in the main has always been the pervading omnipotence of those who do not care crushing out those who do care in darkness and blood."
Please do not feel that I am encouraging myself, or anyone for that matter, to latch on to a neat little ideology that explains everything and precludes or prevents learning anything else. This is the exact opposite effect that really believing in an ideal has. Rather than stifling activity and thought, the mind awakens and becomes aware of its present situation.
Look at the world around you, look inside yourself. We need women and men of action with high ideals and intellectual vigor. If you disagree, you are wrong.
