Commentary It’s often said that ideas have consequences. Ordinary men and women intuitively understand that good ideas yield good results, while bad ideas produce poor decisions and tragic consequences. Over the last century, avant-garde ideas about the nature of “progress” have produced a compulsive desire for intellectual certainty and immediate self-gratification. Today, historical experience and examples set by preceding generations are generally regarded as irrelevant to the conditions of modern humanity. Modern opinion makers and politicians constantly put forward premises and techniques that promise to propel society to higher levels of reasoning. More and more, public figures are piloted by “dialectical analysis” and “critical theory,” which highlights past errors, assigns blame, and proposes to set us on a course toward a more perfect existence. “Build back better” is the seductive mantra of our 21st century illuminati. Good and Bad Ideas Good ideas are generally based on human experience and truth. …