Today certain opinions are held with
pride as being “realistic,” when they actually are as fantastic
and unrealistic as are some of the Pollyannish illusions that they
attack. It is a peculiar fraility of human reactions that many are
prone to believe that a cynical, 'tough' perspective is more likely
to be'realistic' than a more objective, complex, and constructive
one. Apparently many people think that it takes a strong and
courageous man to see things simply and without too many
complexities, or to risk catastrophe without blinking. They forget
that it often takes fanatical, self-righteous, and ignorant men
to confuse what C. W. Mills has so rightly called “crackpot
realism” with a rational appreciation of reality.
Erich Fromm, May Man Prevail? An
Inquiry Into the Facts and Fictions of Foreign Policy,
NY: Doubleday, 1961, p. 29.
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