Fachidiots

FACHIDIOTS

Here is a term that caught my fancy. Fachidiot. It is new and not in common usage yet, but hopefully it will make its way into our everyday language. A "Fachidiot" is a specialist or expert who has amassed an encyclopedic knowledge of his own narrow field but is clueless when it comes to the broader world. Gee, I know some people like that. They read my articles and come back with comments that show they know nothing of the art of debate.

Once armed with the term, you begin to detect the presence of the Fachidiot in your own life.Computer networks can be run by Fachidiots who compose registry entries in hexadecimal but refuse to shower. Environmentalists, often, are the kind of fellows who think their special knowledge of tree-frog habitat entitles them to an unchallengeable opinion about the next five centuries of world economic development. Conspiracy theorists are arguably Fachidiots.

The 9/11 squawkers will recite the specific heat of jet fuel to the fifth decimal place. But they can’t explain how hundreds of U.S. government officials could agree to and conceal the events behind an historic mass murder pulled off in broad daylight.

They’ll cite chapter and verse about the ‘torture’ that happened at Abu Gharib or Guantanamo Bay, yet refuse to acknowledge the fact that humiliation is not torture. They’ll whine about supplying Muslims with Korans but taking away their pillow if they’re uncooperative is torture, but skip over the fact that Muslims will not take away your pillow, they’ll take away your head.

Our jerk of the year, James Loney, was recently seen on TV being magnanimous in his forgiveness of his captors. Fine and dandy. The man is supposedly a Christian and lives by the ‘turn the other cheek’ bit. Still no word of thanks to the British troops that risked life and limb to save his scrawny butt. Mr. Loney is gay. I don’t care one way or the other, but I think his refusal to testify at his captors trial has much more to do with what the Muslims might do to him than his ‘turn the other cheek’ philosophy.