When I was in high school my English teacher introduced us to the study of logic. We spent about a month going through various exercises –“If A=B and B=C then A=C” sort of stuff. Nothing too deep. Kind of fun actually but for the most part my fellow classmates moaned and groaned. They just didn’t get it. At seventeen they knew exactly how to think.

I was thinking of those logic exercises the other day after listening to the governor of Texas. Here’s what he said broken down as a logic problem:

• Mass shootings are caused by anger
• There are more angry people today than ever
• Therefore the solution to mass shootings is to make guns more readily available

I’m almost certain Miss Bauer would have given him an F. What will be his next great leap of logic, do you think?

• To mandate Christian prayer in classrooms, in legislative sessions, in shopping malls – heck, why not take a cue from the Muslims and require mandatory prayer five times a day facing east?
• To force women to start being wives and mothers as God intended. Pop out babies hither and yon whether you can afford to care for them or not. Learn to accept rape as God’s great purpose.
• Shut down libraries and ban more books. We all know mass shooters tend to hang out at libraries and read too many books.

The lovely thing about logic is it isn’t partisan. I don’t care what side of the political aisle you’re on. If anger and hatred are on the rise, the logical solution is not to hand out more guns. It just isn’t. Of course, logic alone can’t be used to solve problems but it sure can highlight sloppy thinking.

When dealing with people. remember, you’re not dealing with creatures of logic but creatures of emotion.

Dale Carnegie

And aye, therein lies the rub. Are we capable of anything but sloppy thinking?