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Columns & Articles
Articles by Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman
| Watsonville Pajaronian. Friday, August 19, 2005 |
| I believe it was in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (Act III, Scene 5) that I first saw the term: “chop-logic.” Juliet’s father had just told her that he had selected a nice young husband for her, but instead of the gratitude he expected, she began to argue with him. “Chop-logic!” he called her. Chop-logic is alive and well again, living in England. Following the two attacks on the London transit system by Muslim terrorists, the British radio station that caters to its South Asian residents carried some fascinating call-in shows. I listened with amazement as perfectly British-sounding citizens of Pakistani-Muslim extraction argued that the suicide bombers did not commit suicide; they were just warriors defending Islam. These “warriors” bravely fought-- in disguise--- blowing up themselves and scores of unwitting passengers on packed subway trains and busses. This is a new kind of warrior indeed. Where does the logic come from that these were warriors? One young woman caller said that “they did not see themselves as suicide bombers; in their minds, they were fighting for Islam.” And because they thought so, that makes it so? Chop logic. In Israel, a young Palestinian suicide bomber walked over to a group of young girls (obviously very dangerous in his befuddled mind) and blew up himself and them. Another chop-logic terrorist. The success of Israel to thrive in the midst of a Muslim world that is not thriving (even when they have oil) has spurred a vast library of chop-logic. It is much easier to fantasize about the secret magic of Israelis (and Jews) to create money out of stone and rocks than to consider that creating a common market with Israel could enrich all of them. Egypt, which used to publish hundreds of excellent books in Arabic, including translations of good European works, no longer does so. Their best selling book last year was a translation of a fraudulent work cooked up in Czarist Russia, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which purported that there was an international secret society of Jews planning to take over the world. Egypt’s chop-logics obviously do not care that this book is make-believe; it sells, and that’s good enough for them. It also makes for good TV viewing. Closer to home, our own chop-logics proclaim that global warming is not taking place because they distrust science as a godless fraud. As the country mops its collective brow over some of the hottest weather ever, the polar ice cap melts in great chunks, and sea levels rise to wipe out low-lying islands and coastlands, the chop-logics do not consider scientists trustworthy. Some of these same chop-logics cannot accept evolution for the same reason—that scientists do not know everything and that the Bible does. Hooray for the tooth fairy, stork, and flat earth! Another great chop-logic is the fear of civil-libertarians against “profiling.” Rather than have an eye out for obvious Middle Eastern young men wearing heavy coats on a hot day (with explosive belts under their coats), our officials are instructed to check out little old ladies in wheelchairs getting on an airplane. It is absolute nonsense not to check the possible candidates for mayhem before the unlikely, wouldn’t you think? Recently in the checkout line at a market, I overheard a woman with a cartload of plastic water bottles say to the checker. “What a nuisance it is to have so much plastic to dispose of, huh?” “Yes,” said the checker, “but the alternative is drinking the city water.” When I reached the checker, I asked: “What’s wrong with city water? Don’t you think it is safe?” “Oh,” she snorted, “but there is no way to know what they put in that water.” I looked at her and my mind registered: “chop-logic!” Are we having a global plague of chop-logics? Looks like it. 635 words Laina Farhat-Holzman Aptos, CA 831/685-8514 Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman is a historian, writer, and lecturer. She is author of Strange Birds from Zoroaster’s Nest and God’s Law or Man’s Law. Contact her at Lfarhat102@aol.com or www.globalthink.net.
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