He set his face not only against literary fashion, but against dominant social and political theories as well. Basic to his position was his dark view of the human soul. Given the nature of man, he felt, programs based on rigid principles of any stripe were doomed to failure. What might be abstractly preferable was irrelevant to the solution of problems whose answers must be devised and implemented by human beings. The starry-eyed idealist who oversimplified issues did more harm than good in the long run, said Bierce; his visionary promises deluded the very people he sought to help, leading them to cynicism and despair. Not only about theological and scientific matters, but about literary, moral, ethical, social, and political ones as well, men and women should reserve judgment on problems which cannot be solved by reason. They should not leap blindly into an uncritical acceptance of dogma by faith. Anyone holding such views is unlikely to maintain doctrinaire tenets, and here lies the crux of Bierce's nonconformity. He could hardly be expected to follow the majority, but what is perhaps more interesting is that he refused to enlist in any minority -
ism, either. Such a man is clearly provocative rather than popular, since there is no group for whom he will have mass appeal.
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