The source of political and religious divide in America is wonderfully illustrated in Uncle Screwtape's first letter to Wormwood. (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters)
It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep [your target] out of the Enemy's clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that. You man has been accustomed, every since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily 'true' or 'false', but as 'academic' or 'practical', 'outworn' or contemporary', 'conventional' or 'ruthless'. Jargon, not argument is your best ally in keeping him from [the truth].
