Let me tell you a story. A long, long time ago, I was trained in social science. I thought too much of it dry and lifeless. I got tired of prose that could put you to sleep, and I wondered why social scientists wrote about people as if either those studied, or those studying them, were aliens from Mars instead of kindred flesh and blood. I was determined that when I wrote, I'd use narrative and imagery to touch people where they live. Now I worry that the vivid image and the compelling tale have overwhelmed our capacity to represent and acquire knowledge rationally. Let me illustrate. The seniors on TV are complaining about the threatened hit to their medicare benefits. "Take the money out of foreign aid!" they cry. They believe the budget for foreign aid twice that for medicare, and they suggested foreign aid should be reduced to 8 % of the federal budget. Trouble is, foreign aid is already but a fraction of 1 %. And medicare takes more than ten times the bite out of the federal dollar. They, and millions of other Americans, believe we are squandering our treasure on foreigners --I think-- because, as some politicians have discovered, the story feels right. It captures so well the gut feeling that our government is busy taking care of everybody else but us. So the myth persists, impervious to evidence. A most alarming sign of how far the subordination of evidence and reason to the tyranny of the good image may have gone came a few weeks ago. It was at the time of the famous OJ Simpson Glove Fiasco: you remember, that unforgettable moment when the bloody gloves didn't fit the defendant's hands. What I found alarming was that the legal experts all seemed to agree that the prosecution's blunder was irreparable. This was after the jury had been shown that the same-sized gloves, with linings intact, unshrunk, and tried over bare hands, went on readily. The idea seemed to be that the moment when the gloves didn't fit had been so vivid and dramatic, mere reason and evidence could never undo its persuasive impact. The jury system, and government by the people-- these are the gifts to us from the founding of our country in the Age of Reason. And these precious institutions depend upon our judgment being governed by knowledge rationally acquired. I like a good story as much as the next guy. But I'm worried about living in a country where fantasy can trump reason.