Harvard's E.O. Wilson came out with a book, Consilience, about the mind's inability to see the world as an integrated whole. Picture him presiding with tears and nobility at the ceremony honoring those killed in the Africa embassy bombings. Picture the same man a couple of days later telling Hillary about Monica. That one mind can live in two such different worlds may be the story of the year. People know a good story when they hear one.
Evolution is a story, a beauty.
It is thought that children acquire language to tell the story that is already in them. Only a few weeks ago, the pure-science linguist Noam Chomsky, in another change of mind, said he now thinks a divine power gave us language in a single, inspired stroke. Most people did not want that particular ending. They said so in the opinion polls and in the midterm elections. The press, on the other hand, thought it was still playing Watergate and pursued the story toward an ending the public did not seek.