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Logic 101
by Michael R. Burch
According to most Americans, The United States is the greatest nation on earth, and
therefore the one every other nation should emulate. But
according to most Americans, virtually everything about our utopian nation's
government is an absolute mess. If this is true, shouldn't we consider emulating
other nations, whose governments are doing better jobs for their citizens? But
no, the Tea Party movement currently sweeping across America seems to be a
violent knee-jerk reaction against any reform of American government. Reform is
derided as "hopey-changey," "totalitarian socialism," etc.
The reformers are automatically labeled foreign-born agents, the Anti-Christ,
etc.
How is it possible for the greatest nation on earth to have the worst
government, and yet for that government to be beyond reform? What can one conclude,
but that Americans need to take a remedial course in logic? Hence, the title of my
essay: "Logic 101" or "Logic for Beginners."
I will start with a simple a priori axiom: people should not try to
"teach" or "help" other people in areas in which they themselves are
demonstrably incompetent. I know quite a bit about my area of expertise:
designing and writing computer software (which makes me an expert on logic,
because computer programs are pure logic). In my area of expertise, I may well
be able to help other people. But I know nothing about
brain surgery, so it would be highly inadvisable for
me to crack someone's skull open and attempt to "fix" his brain, if he
complained of having a headache. If I tried to "fix" someone else's brain, I
would be a quack, and a criminal.
I believe Americans are demonstrably very good at
certain things, but demonstrably terrible at others. We are very good at
producing blockbuster movies like "Avatar" and "Star Wars" that people in other
countries enjoy watching. We are very good at producing blockbuster songs like
"White Christmas" and "We Are The World" that people in other countries enjoy
hearing. We are very good at producing agricultural products that people all
over the world enjoy eating. We are very good at producing computer programs that make people all over the world more productive. If
people in other countries ask for our help in such areas, we may well
be able to help them. But there is one thing that we are demonstrably terrible
at, and that is government. For Americans to "help" other countries
"fix" their
governments is like me cracking open my neighbor's head with a rock and "fixing" his brain,
if he has a headache.
When our government attempts brain surgery on the governments of other
nations, I have to call it what it obviously is: a criminal quack and a
crackpot.
Considering the all-too-obvious problems the U.S. faces within its own borders, we have no business exporting our
self-acclaimed “superior” system of government to other countries. Our nation is
on the verge of bankruptcy and the American public has obviously lost confidence in
its politicians. A nation that elected George W. Bush and is now considering
"Winkin' and Wailin'" Sarah Palin, who seems to espouse bombing Iran,
or "supporting Israel" and letting them do the dirty deed, is clearly a nation
scraping the bottom of the political barrel. And yet we are spending trillions of dollars to “convert” other
nations (Afghanistan, Iraq, probably Iran, who next?) to the “American way” of doing
things. This means letting our incompetent politicians tell countries they know
little or nothing about how to manage their affairs.
Does this make any sense, whatsoever?
If I don't think our politicians can run the U.S., does it make sense for me to
trust them to "help" Iraq or Iran?
If Cubans who subscribe to the philosophy and methods of Fidel Castro were to
invade the U.S., what would Americans do? We would take one look at Cuba, then say “We don’t
want that!” and starting defending our loved ones from the nefarious invaders. But isn’t
this exactly what’s happening in Afghanistan and Iraq? Millions of people
have looked at what they see going wrong in the U.S., and have clearly, defiantly said “We don’t want
that!” Since we're not happy ourselves, can we blame them?
Our troops have not been fighting “terrorists” in Afghanistan and Iraq, for the
most part. This is just one of many prevailing fictions the American public has
bought―hook, line and sinker. For the most part, our troops
have been fighting native Iraqis
and Afghanis (and now, increasingly, Pakistanis) who don’t want foreign invaders dictating how they should live
and be governed. Yes,
there are some people who may be termed “terrorists” stirred into the mix, but
it's virtually impossible to isolate them. And they would call the CIA and the Mossad "terrorists" and have a very good argument. If CIA
agents manage to kill members of Al-Qaeda with robotic drones from time to time, they also manage
to "accidentally" kill innocent women and children, because the drones are far
from infallible. And how many innocent Palestinian women and children has Israel killed, over
the last sixty years? If we’re honest, even the worst "terrorists"
have legitimate grievances against the governments of Israel and the U.S.
If we were to employ logic rather than blowing up the various parts of
the world that don’t believe we should have free rein to enforce our
“ideals” on other people, we might discover there was never a rational reason for
9-11 or the wars we find ourselves fighting today. One very real problem is that Americans have
forgotten one of the most important principles of peace: if you don’t want to
fight other men, don’t harm their women and children. Since1948, the governments
of Israel and the U.S. have colluded to do great
harm to multitudes of innocent Palestinian women and children. This is wrong,
and sixty years of both nations completely failing to admit and redress the
problem has made matters worse and worse. This great
wrong, and other wrongs perpetrated by our government in its relentless quest to
“secure” its “interests” in Middle Eastern oil fields (which should be solely
the interests of the people who live in the region) led directly to 9-11 and the
subsequent wars.
In addition to being terrible at government, Americans are also very bad at
logic.
The author of an important book, The
Science of Fear, noted that because flying is much safer than
driving, more than 1,500 people died unnecessarily after 9-11, because so many
Americans chose to drive rather than fly. Irrational fear can, and does,
kill. If a plane were to be destroyed by a terrorist, millions of Americans
would stop flying. But we don't stop driving our cars every time we see a
highway accident, and far more people die in car accidents than in plane wrecks.
Today it seems likely that thousands of American children will die in the future because
their parents have become afraid of vaccinations, even though scientific studies have
proven such fears are wildly overstated, if not groundless. Obviously, the danger
lethal diseases pose to children cannot be ignored just because there is a small
(or infinitesimal) chance that something bad might happen, due to a vaccination. The world is full of
risks. When I see lightning I know there is a very slight possibility that I
might be struck, so I take sensible precautions (such as staying inside), but it
would be irrational for me to choose a wildly dangerous course of action in order to
“escape” any possibility of being struck by lightning. For instance, if I were
to slit my wrists and drain all the blood from my body because the water and
iron in my blood might “attract” lightning, I would be mad. But it
seems Americans have resorted to such madness rather than logic. Flying is safer than
driving. Vaccinating children is much safer than not vaccinating them. Far more children will die from bad diets and lack of
exercise, than from all the other risks they face,
combined. But American parents will continue to have panic attacks
over very minor dangers, while exposing their children to monumental dangers
without batting an eye.
Americans have become Chicken Littles, waiting for some demagogue or
“pundit” to announce “The sky is falling!” so they can all panic together. But
most of the dangers the pundits scream about are minor dangers. We need to understand that pundits
become rich and famous by inspiring fear, then pretending to know what to do
about the "danger," and that much of the fear inspired is
irrational fear.
For instance, the world is not in any danger of being “conquered” by Islamic Jihadists. The UN
navy is larger than the next 13 largest navies of the world, combined. Muslim nations do not
have the navies or air forces required to attempt amphibious invasions of
Western superpowers, much less the U.S. When Americans talk about the danger of
global jihad, it’s like elephants being afraid of mice. So the the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq were unnecessary. This is not to say there should not have
been some response after the 9-11 attack. But the attack was made by Al-Qaeda,
which has, from what I've read, no more than a few hundred active members. Obviously, a few hundred men
can stir up a lot of trouble, but they can’t take over the world.
And obviously the hue and cry over Iraq and WMDs was pure political spin. The
elephant had nothing to fear from the mouse. But just consider the damage we've
done to Iraq and ourselves, in the ensuing stampede.
And it’s important to understand that we were attacked on 9-11 for reasons that actually
make sense. Most Americans don’t want to be bothered with logic. When we think
of the attack, we “know” our government is a source of sweetness and light, and
couldn’t possibly have done anything wrong. But of course we don’t “know” that,
do we? What we really know, or should know, is that our government is capable of incredible folly. If Americans were
to consider the grievances of the men who attacked us, as they explained those
grievances themselves, we would realize that we have been wrong on two
monumental counts.
First, the danger we face has been vastly overstated. Second, 9-11 and both wars
could have been avoided, if our government had done two things differently: (1) our
government should not favor Israelis over Palestinians, because this has led to
the suffering and premature deaths (i.e., murders) of multitudes of Palestinian women
and children; and (2) our government should stop meddling in the affairs of
Middle Eastern nations, because our meddling has only driven the price of oil
sky-high, while we have poured more than a trillion dollars into fruitless, unwinnable,
avoidable wars.
Let me say this again: we could have avoided 9-11 and the subsequent wars if
only we hadn't harmed innocent women and children while doing things that only
caused the price of oil to skyrocket higher.
It’s also interesting to note that there are far more deaths in Israel because
of deteriorating highways than terrorist attacks. Israel has spent
hundreds of billions of dollars to create the fourth most powerful military on
the planet (well, actually huge sums of money were donated by the gullible American
taxpayer), and billions more to create the infrastructure to steal land from
Palestinians in the West Bank. This infrastructure consists of Jewish-only
roads, Jewish-only communities, Jewish-only waterworks, etc., and hundreds of
miles of walls twice as high as the Berlin Wall, which snake through Occupied
Palestine. These walls are clearly not “defensive” in nature, or they would be
built on the border between Israel and the West Bank. If I build a wall on my
own land, I may claim the wall is for defensive purposes. If I build a wall
inside your property, then send people with guns to camp out on “my side” of
your property, while keeping your children from setting foot on your land which
I suddenly "own" . . .
well, that is obviously a highly offensive move.
But today land Israel
took from the Palestinians in 1948 lies fallow inside the borders
of Israel, because most Israeli Jews prefer to live in urban areas. So Israel already
has more farmland than it needs. It would save multitudes of lives and cost far less money
if Israelis were to cultivate land
and fix roads inside Israel, than to steal land from Palestinians.
So despite having produced some of the greatest minds in human history, it seems
the Jews are also capable of massive illogic.
If we were to take a course called Logic 101, we might conclude that together
Israelis and Americans helped bring about 9-11, by causing ten million
Palestinians to become destitute, when for the last 60 years Israel has had more
farmland than it needs, within its own borders. Why has the U.S. contributed hundreds of billions
of dollars to “help” Israel, when Israel is using that money to steal land it
doesn’t need from an increasingly destitute people, who have nowhere else to go?
Perhaps Israeli and American politicians need to take remedial courses in Logic
and Compassion.
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