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Critically critical thinking

Blogging from Iraq in "Iraq the Model," Mohammed writes, "Here in the lands of sands logic continues to find very little space in our way of thinking and is had been shrinking before a language of mostly false pride, dignity and sentimental slogans." This is not unexpected, he adds, "in this part of the world where, for centuries, logic was and still being cast away to prevent a confrontation with ideas that might blow up our entire set of metaphysical beliefs that were passed from one generation to the other."He adds, that a Caliph long ago decreed, "Logic is heresy."

What prompts Mohammed's observation was an article in an international Arabic daily that, sarcastically, wondered why Arabs are calling for ceasefire while "we are winning" and why should Arabs stop the fighting while "we are achieving one victory after another" according to Arab media. He despairs how many took the article to be serious. Illusion of victory postpones reckoning with reality. Mohammed explains that the two institutions in charge of spreading information and forming the mindset of the population ? the educational and media institutions ? are both in the hands of governments. Complicating that, education is surrounded by red lines imposed by clerics.

In his conversations with his countrymen he mostly uses verifiable numbers because they are hard to argue with, and with understanding, the bravado evaporates. "What I'm trying to say here is that sometimes making people aware of simple and available statistics can change a mindset from 'they came to steal' to 'then why are they here?' and this for sure is a dangerous beginning for the ruling regimes in this region and this primitive language of numbers poses a threat to the dominant mentality because it leads to a few logical results that collide forcefully with the illusions being spread by the Arab and Islamic regimes and media institutions who hate logic even more than they hate the west."

While this explanation helps us understand the intractability of problems in the Middle East, it should sensitize us to the lack of training in logic that haunts our own educational system. It's a flaw that leads to television anchors who blithely accept ridiculous statements from leaders as if they have no responsibility to hold those leaders accountable for what they say. It leads to political parties duping followers with baseless clichés one wonders if they themselves believe in.

This is a dangerous world where our only hope is to encourage clear thinking if there is a chance to change it for the better.

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