The Only Valuable Answers

I suppose it would sound somewhat bigoted of me to say that one should generally be suspcious of jouranlists with an appetite for “large ideas,” but I intend no insult. Large ideas are not necessarily worthwhile pursuits and journalism is none the poorer for being, on the whole, inimical to them. The journalist’s chief vocation is to elucidate, to simplify, to synopsize, to reduce a story to its most elementary logic — all of which is very admirable where matters of plain fact are at issue. But when one begins to touch upon matters of a more abstract frame or of a more cosmic scope — say, God, the history of religion, the nature of morality, social evolution, historical determinism, ultimate purpose, and so on — then it is often the case that the only valuable answers will prove no less complex and daunting than the questions that have prompted them. At that point the journalist’s otherwise commendable passion to establish “the real story” becomes more a hindrance than an aid to understanding.

— D.B. Hart “The Origin of the Specious” (The Dream Child’s Progress, pg. 43)