Echo:
The intellectual hatred shows
In Ulster, witch-hunts McCarthyite
And Rushdie’s fatwa: it grows
From the compulsive need to be right
And consistent, as we leap to conclusions
We incline to reach by exclusions.
Science:
I admit that I try to make
A thesis from inadequate data –
But importantly for elaboration’s sake
Referees give their imprimatur
In order a descant to permit
On concurrent facts that confirm it.
Echo:
On concurrent facts that confirm it
The paranoid will ceaselessly batten,
Till his fear is ‘proven’, as a hermit
Spins his world-tottering pattern
From the exaggerated evils he’d impute –
And you pattern your world, to boot!
Science:
I’m open to disconfirmatory evidence
As well, being involved in the world. –
It’s just that my thesis has a defence
At which no charge can be hurled:
My opponent’s methods were duff
Or he didn’t understand me enough.