Facts and Feelings

Even before I read Not the End of the World (more on that soon) I'd been thinking about writing about Facts. Facts are interesting because they may be True but they can often be Unhelpful. People do not run on Facts they run on Feelings. It is a Fact that on-street policing is a very inefficient use of police time but many people Feel that 'bobbies on the beat' make them safer. It is a Fact that the world is safer than ever but that is definitely not the Feeling of being in the world right now. A Feeling I often come across is that "The country is full. There is no space." The country is mostly space, I say. No, it is not, they say. I pull up various sources including government statistics that say 5.3 to 8.7 per cent of this country is built-on land. More than ninety per cent of this country is space. Oh, well, they say, that's not what I meant, I meant... And they make up some more Feelings about it. I know Facts don't change Feelings. Not like that anyway. Sometimes I say them.…