PAUL’S TEACHINGS ABOUT WOMEN, Epilogue, Part 3
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Not everyone is like Alabama’s former Governor George Wallace, who first stood for segregation, even standing up to the Federal Government, but who later accepted integration, even becoming a champion of jobs for blacks. With knowledge running to and fro at an ever-increasing rate, with communications uniting the world under a new banner of increased tolerance and open-mindedness, we ought to find more and more people, institutions, and cultures cutting off the shackles of unwarranted prejudices and ignorance.
At the other end of the spectrum, new ideas based on syllogisms formed in the vacuum of historical facts and lessons can be just as dangerous to society as the old conclusions based on false syllogisms. A false syllogism is still a false syllogism, no matter whether it was formed in ancient times or during our present age. Take, for example, the criticism of former President Harry Truman for ordering the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II. The critics reveal their ignorance of history in their outrage. The fact was that the firebombing of Tokyo and other Japanese cities was already killing thousands of civilians and destroying their cities. Expecting an invasion, the Japanese had trained both their military and civilians—men, women, and children—to fight to the end like their heroic Kamikaze pilots. If they were going to be defeated, they were going to kill as many Americans as possible in the process. President Truman was advised that an invasion of Japan would kill many more civilians than two atomic bombs would, as well as an estimated 100,000 more American troops. Only after the two atomic bombs, when the Japanese believed that they were going to be defeated but the Americans were going to have no more casualties, did the Japanese become open-minded and accepted change. People should remember that a syllogism formed in the vacuum of historical facts and lessons is almost invariably going to be tainted, if not outright false.