PEA RIDGE — Facts are exposing the limits of what government can do. Recent events have again proven that government cannot induce prosperity by increasing debt and increasing control of the domestic economy.

Overseas, we have learned that government cannot build nations in our image through military force when the population does not value what we value.

Everywhere we see that government acting beyond its God-ordained role of honoring those who do good and bringing wrath on evil-doers (Romans 13) is a failure. The war on poverty, trillions later, is as big a failure as the wars of nation-building and “economic stimulus.”

Despite what we have all seen happen, talking heads and pundits who argued for big-government solutions to these problems arestill the voices the media quotes. They are still the ones who have big events that people buy tickets to go see. They are still the celebrity opinion makers people listen to. The fact that the policies they advocated were disastrouslywrong does not seem to have destroyed their credibility in the minds of the populace. The people have not tuned them out or sought out other voices for counsel. Lately, I have put my mind to the question of why people don’t quit listening to opinion makers who have proven to be wrong. Or, more productively, why don’t people listen to those few people who have been right?

I’ve noticed that those few who see farther than the rest are often accused of hallucinating by those whose vision does not extend as far. The far-sighted warn about what the catastrophic result will be if we adopt some bone-headed policy. They get shouteddown and dismissed as “nuts.” Then, when what they warned of comes to pass, few people remember that they were right, they just remember themas nuts! And of course, because of the bone-headed policy they are in a “crisis.” And a crisis is no time to change who you listen to, why we have to rally around our leaders! You know them, the ones who got us in the crisis.

I have come to the depressing conclusion that until substantial personal pain is involved, most citizens, left or right, don’t change who they listen to based on whose advice has proven to be right or wrong. They listen to who is “loudest,” that is, who is easiest to listen to because they are most accessible.

They also pick who they listen to based on feelingtone rather than correctness or error. Style overwhelms substance. Packaging pulverizes product.

There are seven billion of us. That fact offers some hope that the colossal stupidity of failing to listen to those who were right is not a permanent part of the human condition. The race simply could not have survived if it were. There is reason to believe that once the pain level gets high enough, people will altertheir behavior. Until then, people will listen to whoever tells them what they want to hear, is most accessible, or sounds and looks the most pleasant. Once they can no longer afford that luxury, they will devote some effort to seeking out and listening to those who have been right.

The Bible gives the most dramatic illustration of this phenomenon. Isaiah chapter 53 is worth the read and is one of the most moving passages in Scripture. It describes God’s suffering Servant, fulfilled centuries later in the person of Christ, whose message of truth is rejected because the package was more important to the audience than the tremendous gift inside it.

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Editor’s note: Mark Moore is the lead writer for an Internet blog on matters pertaining to Arkansas culture and government, Arkansas Watch, and on Tuesday nights is the host of an Internet-based radio program, Patriots on Watch. He can be reached through The Times at [email protected].

Opinion, Pages 4 on 11/17/2010