Mark and I were talking the other day about how logic seems to have disappeared from the American  vocabulary and culture.

We agreed that it would be too vast a project to restore logic to the national school curriculum. An easier project might be to refresh our knowledge of the 10 to 20 major fallacies.  In this way we would be able to see how we are tempted by fallacies in 8 out of 10 TV commercials and 93.5% of daily utterances by American politicians.

We find a good one in today’s NBC news from Fallacy Master Dick Cheney commenting on the report on CIA’s use of “Enhanced Interrogation”:

“Asked about the charge that the program did not work, Cheney said: “The report’s full of crap. Excuse me. I said ‘hooey’ yesterday. Let me use the real word.”

Using Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged architect of the Sept. 11 attack, as an example, the former vice president said: “What are we supposed to do, kiss him on both cheeks and say, ‘Please, please tell us what you know?’ Of course not. We did exactly what needed to be done.”

The Senate report said that Mohammed was waterboarded almost 200 times. United Nations officials have classified waterboarding as torture. Cheney told Fox News that torture “was something that we very carefully avoided.”

“The report’s full of crap.” 

Why does this fallacy work so well that Dick Cheney and other male politicians use it so often?

“The report’s full of crap.”

Bold, strong, tough, manly, macho. Not wimpy, soft, fuzzy,  intellectual or logical.  Now we don’t need to read the report because we know it is just full of what? Crap. How do we know: Dick Cheney said so.

So here’s the string of fallacious logic in today’s selection:

• How do we know? Because Dick says so!
• Is Dick an authority? Yes. Why?
• Because he speaks boldly, toughly, loudly, macho-ly.
• Is that enough to be a believable  authority? Yes, according to current American standards of logic.
• So, is the report “crap”?
• Dick Cheney will have to define the word “crap” more precisely before we can know for sure.

This fallacy is generally called the argument from authority.

If we study the brief quote above we can find at least a few other fallacies: false analogy, fake definition. unproved premisses etc. But that’s about enough Cheney to digest for today.

“Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.”  Matthew 6:34

The Republicans have won the Senate as well as the House of Representatives – as predicted. Apparently it’s an almost inevitable cycle that the vote goes against the incumbent party in the non-presidential, low turnout election.

(A cynical view of democracy might see elections as a periodic release of anger and frustration which restrains the masses from open revolution.)

This morning commentators are pointing out that the Republicans who won did not reveal their agenda during the campaign. Will they reveal their intentions today? Will Mitch finally reveal his cards?

Based on recent history here are some clues about what the Republicans might have in store for you and me and our country:

a. new wars
b. economic depression
c. repeal our new healthcare act.
d. privatize/eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.
e. expand taxpayer spending on military, homeland security, banking, oil and other large industries.
f. miscellaneous actions in favor of the billionaires who paid for their election.

I hold no brief for the Democrats but my memory is clear that Republican wars and Republican economic disasters have been toxic, not just to us Americans but to the whole planet.

Why did I choose this wordy title? Because long ago back in 1963       I invented it – and here’s the story.

In my English class at Del Valle high school in Northern California one student stood out. She loved to write, worked hard at it and was the best writer I had ever had in my classes. She had one issue: she preferred to use long Latinate words whenever possible, often at the expense of clarity. I pointed this out regularly in my comments on her papers but she didn’t agree. I pointed out how Emily Dickinson used big words sparingly and for special effect, contrasting Latinate long words with Anglo-Saxon short words. Still the impressive big words!

Finally one day in mild frustration I  traded my long written comments for a pithy statement that would make my student take notice. Two obscure powerful words joined together: eschew & obfuscation. (eschew rhymes with chew not shoe as some pronounce it weakly)

That was the end of it. No comment on my little aphorism, but she did give a little on the big words.

Next step. a few months later I am taking some graduate courses at UC Berkeley. This was the 60’s, a time of turmoil strife and confusion in the country, especially at Berkeley – home of the Free Speech movement and one-hundred other movements. Anyway, I am in a bathroom stall on campus; the walls are completely covered with graffiti, slogans, rants, debates, insults and insipid insights. I felt compelled to add my own two cents so I came back with a black marker pen and wrote, you guessed it: Eschew Obfuscation! Again, end of story.

Later, about 21 years later!  I am on the UC San Diego campus for my son’s graduation ceremony.  I come from outside into one of the buildings to find a men’s room.  I enter a stall and am dumbfounded: written on the wall in large letters is: Eschew Obfuscation. The slogan has a life of its own!

A few years later I am listening to a favorite program on public radio: a group of witty Brits discussing culture and literature, playing word games, making brilliant comments. One of the brilliant wits said something like this: One of my very favorite  sayings is Eschew Obfuscation, I just love it!

This warmed my heart; it was the greatest recognition I could ever receive. That’s the story as I know it –  firsthand.

Why this strange title for my blog? Because I like it and because I know who and when it was put together and how it was promulgated. I’ll talk about this later.

By the way there is a weak wimpy way of pronouncing “eschew” that just lacks energy – ess-SHOE. Contrast that with a strong ess-CHEW as in ESCHEW TOBACCO.

I’m still learning how to maneuver around this, my new website. My son Mark, an expert in computers among other things, has inspired me to tell some stories, share ideas, laugh a little etc. in this public way. We’ll see what comes up.

Even before this first post I have received mail/comments telling me how I can vastly increase my audience. Curious!