Zen and the Art of /.*/

A character in Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, when told the theory of Pythagoras that the earth is round and revolves around the sun, replies:

“What an utter fool! Couldn’t he use his eyes?”

Flat-earth geocentrism is the quintessential modern epithet applied to an opponent who either can’t or refuses to see past the immediately evident phenomena and grasp the larger truth.

Despite its tired, clichéd status, it is still a great metaphor.