Platform Video: Reflections on the Lunatic Fringe

The following ECS/Bergen Platform address was delivered on Sunday, October 4, 2009, by Dr. Joseph Chuman (introduced by Ed Gross):

Dr. Joseph Chuman: Reflections on the Lunatic Fringe (10/4/2009) from Ethical Culture Society Bergen on Vimeo.

The fracas over health care reform has brought to political life an irrationality that is very disturbing. But it is not new to American history. How are we to explain views that are not only extreme but are disconnected from fact? This address will provide some possible responses.

Nation relives a more troubling aspect of its past

An article by the Leader of the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, Dr. Joseph Chuman, was published in today's print and online editions of The Record. In it, Chuman draws parallels between the "suspicious discontent" described by historian Richard Hofstadter in his 1964 essay "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" and the town hall charades of today's vocal opponents of health care reform. (See page A-11 of the September 19 Record, or click here for the online version).

"[I]f we wish to see civility restored to our political discourse", Chuman concludes, "we need to sustain a sturdy faith in reason — supported by the facts — as the governor of public life."

Dr. Chuman will present a full-length address teasingly titled "Reflections on the Lunatic Fringe" on October 4, 2009, at the Ethical Culture Meeting House in Teaneck, NJ.