persuasive illogic

I was listening to a commentator who had opinions about Obama's delivery style. He said that the president used one of 2 tones when discussing the health care bill with the general public: 1) political - describing the spirit of the thing in terms that would invoke feelings or, 2) graduate level seminar. I then listened to an example of his graduate level seminar prose and heard nothing too confusing. He didn't use any complicated terms, specialized rhetoric, or unfamiliar acronyms. He just moved through a logical argument. The commentator was saying that Obama needed to teach the public about the plan, using language that "everyone could understand."

I then looked at some headlines from a popular American "news" source and saw virtually no news. Everything was drenched in commentary with little or no concrete evidence to support it. Later, I noticed a commercial for some gum, which implied that chewing on the artificially sweetened processed petroleum wedge would teleport you to a place where beautiful people are attracted to you and you cease to experience discomfort. Later, there was this other ad suggesting that taking a "dose" of some certain yogurt every day would solve all of your bowel problems. Nothing explaining the why, just a bunch of persuasive statements.

This seems to be the case with almost all popular sources of information these days: nothing concrete, just persuasive commentary without evidence.

In our school district, the K-12 science teachers are embarking on a mission to move our emphasis a little away from content and a little toward methodology. We are going to be teaching argumentation using evidence. I am already doing it with the conceptual physics courses that I'm teaching, but the vision is that everyone will be proficient logicians by the time they leave high school.

In thinking about this undertaking, I realize that we have to fight a drumbeat of illogic that pours from all other unsolicited instructors. We are social creatures and move with the flow of society, but the flow has been artificially hijacked by the loudest voices through the "innovation" of mass media. Persuasive illogic is winning people away from reason.