Samenvatting

Even journalists and academics sometimes employ dichotomies that fall short almost immediately. An example is the prophets and wizards dichotomy. Populism with a scientific twist, which apparently makes sense and appeals to our gut feeling. A golden formula, with an implicit logical appeal to dialectics, an age-old and proven method of buying knowledge through opposites such as black and white, plus and minus. It is argued that with respect to the prophets and wizards dichotomy it becomes there are two kinds of prophets, realistic and fairytale prophets, who call themselves wizards.