Norm quotes Hannah Arendt on Adolf Eichmann, that what characterized him was 'sheer thoughtlessness' - or, as she put it in another piece ('Thinking and Moral Considerations: A Lecture', Social Research 38, 1971), 'extraordinary shallowness' and a 'quite authentic inability to think'.
I seem to have met a few such people; in fact, I'm related to some of them.
Bertrand Russell, the intellectual hero of the young goodfornowt, wrote 'Most people would rather die than think, in fact, most do.'
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Fear of thinking is how I see it. In quite a few conversations, I see people beginning to let an idea in, realize that it will require them to change things that make life comfortable (or tolerable) for them, and slam their minds shut as the fear hits.
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