March 10, 2010

LOGIC, RATIONALITY AND BELIEF

Arshad M. Khan

A man searching for a lawyer to represent him had a simple question:  What is two plus two?  The

first lawyer looked him straight in the eye and answered four.  The second examined him

searchingly, then answered three.  The third narrowed his eyes in a penetrating gaze and replied

five.  The fourth simply smiled and asked, what do you want it to be?

Careful logic and too much rationality gets in the way of lawyering – the defending attorney might

begin to accept the prosecution argument and vice versa.  No, it is the lawyer’s job to make black

appear gray, then lighter and lighter through subtle tweaking of logic until all of a sudden it is

white.  The blackest blackguard is transformed into a cherub; the perpetrator becomes victim.

This President came into office with an earnest belief in the Americanness of all Americans.  He

maintained that political, ethnic and religious divisions were superficial and media inspired, that, at

heart, we shared the core values of hard work, decency, tolerance, practicality, the get-with-it-and-

get-it-done uniqueness of our country, all being largely responsible for our success as a nation;

that when it came to a crunch we would pick, rationally, and with reason, the best course for our

country as a whole.

Unfortunately, the Congress is choc-a-bloc full of lawyers, not accountants or engineers, for

example, where logic is essential, but lawyers who have coalesced into islands sustained by

beliefs, and no evidence, logic or rational discourse can draw them away from them.  The situation

is repeated in the general populace.  News channels catering exclusively to extremes allow people

to listen only to views repeating their own, within their comfort zone, reinforcing their indubitable

correctness without regard to fact, discussion or even a peek at the opposing side.

Thus, for some, government is bad, as is regulation.  Forget the fact that when we had deregulation

of the Savings & Loans, we had the S & L crisis and bankruptcies costing the taxpayer $387 billion.  

We went on to strip banking regulations and now have the banking crisis costing trillions and the

bills are still coming.  The banks made so much money after they realized the key to the pot of gold

lay in the halls of Congress that they have a lobbying operation with a budget larger than many

third world countries.  No matter the misery in the country, many people still believe all regulation

is bad.

Or, take health care.  Any form of government-run program is bad.  Forget the fact that senior

citizens are on Medicare including many vociferously opposed to government-run programs.  The

fact that Medicare is one of the government’s largest efforts is compartmentalized in another part

of the brain.  Why not Medicare for all?  If you disagree and if you are over 65, why have you not

surrendered your Medicare card?

Or since the early eighties, Muslims are bad.  First, all Palestinians were terrorists;  Palestinians

were Muslim; ergo Muslims were bad.  Forget the fact that nearly a quarter of Palestinians are

Christian including the late Yasser Arafat’s wife, as well as Hanan Ashrawi one of their leading

activists.  Forget the fact that the most recalcitrant of the PLO’s member groups was the Christian-

led PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and it refused to join the PLO in its peace

process with Israel.  Forget the fact that Muslims ruled a multicultural Spain with the three

Abrahamic religions existing peacefully side by side, or that when Christians conquered the land,

the Jews and Muslims were driven out with the Jews receiving sanctuary in Muslim-ruled lands.

Or, …, take your pick.  Forget history, forget logic, forget facts, the comfort zone has the warmth of

the finest 900 FP down from the finest eider ducks.

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