Tolstoy & the Great Lie

He told himself that before proclaiming an unreasonable thing to be unreasonable one must first study the unreasonable thing. This was a trifling falsehood, but it led him to the great lie, in which he was now stuck fast.
Tolstoy, Resurrection

Most people are, obviously enough, less intelligent intellectually than the intellectuals who have attained some measure of public acclaim, however petty and ultimately false such figures might ultimately be. Even with ample forewarning of, for argument sake, the bigoted fascism of one such figure- perhaps even a favoured author- the individual tells himself, "Yes, but I will be fair and judge for myself." However, like the crowd in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, he is very far from being able to judge for himself, and carried away by the eloquence, or simply appearance of eloquence, of the favoured author, he comes away happily reassured that the dreadful things said of the author were unwarranted, and can continue with an easy conscience in the direction he was steering himself, wholly unaware of the great vines of lies entangling that self.