Salon: hen faced with intractable problems, we often make up stories to console ourselves. The boats not really sinking, we say: Were just going through a rough patch. Were not headed for disaster; weve just been blown off course. Better to keep a bright outlook on things, we presume, than to acknowledge our desperate situation.
This sort of hopeful self-deception was on exhibit three weeks ago at Harvard University, where a student activist confronted the universitys president, Drew Faust, over...