People do not come to the Internet so that their bad information can be corrected or their cherished theories disproven. Rather, they ask the electronic oracle to confirm them in their ignorance.

More from Thomas Nichols

• These are dangerous times. Never have so many people had so much access to so much knowledge and yet have been so resistant to learning anything.
• Accept loss forever
• A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves.
• A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.
• A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us. Essays, "Character," 1844
• A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.