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© 2007 Daniel J. McLaughlin Fooling The People You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. That is an old saying that has more than a grain of truth in it. I had a discussion with someone recently about what people believe, some of the things politicians get away with, and why so many people are fooled so often about so many important things. The people in this country are generally intelligent, enlightened and knowledgeable. It is astounding, therefore, what people accept as truth. I believe that most people sincerely want to know and do what is right, they do genuinely search for truth. That being the case, it seems like a paradox that millions of intelligent truth seekers could take fallacies and untruths for granted. Each person’s understanding of truth is founded on some basic assumptions about reality. Those assumptions can come from first hand observation, from information received from another trusted person or by building on other, previous assumptions to arrive at a new understanding. I remember a number of times when I was young, being embarrassed by insisting I was right about a particular issue. I found that I was relying on information that I had received from someone I trusted, information that was not true. I built my understanding on false premises. There came a time when those false premises hit a brick wall and had to crumble. I have since learned to be a bit skeptical and not take what I am told for granted. Who are our trusted people, those who are supposed to steer us straight? Parents, teachers, friends, college professors, political leaders, scientists or anybody we respect. The disappointing fact is that even advanced college degrees don’t necessarily confer truth or goodness or rightness on any individual. In many cases, they only impute the fallacies or biases of the teachers who taught them. The reason that so many fallacies remain through the years is that they sound plausible when stated in a certain way. They are partly true, and when the untrue true parts are ignored or hidden, they may appear to be correct interpretations of reality. For example, trade restrictions may actually be helpful to a certain group of people, protecting jobs and allowing for higher wages, higher prices and more profitability. The other half, the part that is not seen, is that the protection takes money and jobs from other people and causes higher prices to the consumers of the products and more interference in people’s lives. Any time decisions are made without mutual consent between all parties, it is highly likely that someone is worse off than before, even though the visible target group may be better off. There are many instances where truth is brushed under the carpet, even when it is known, or should be known, by the expert. The chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank is one person who knows, without a doubt, that general price inflation comes only from an increase in the money supply. When he tells the people of this country that inflation is caused by higher gas prices or food prices or any other prices, it can be no surprise that those people take him for his word, and make no connection between monetary policy and the loss in value of the dollar. They naturally expect someone like that to be trustworthy. Then again, they should know better from experience. Politicians are generally people entrusted with power, and expected to be trustworthy in word and action. Political expediency, however, is probably the foremost reason that new life is breathed into age old fallacies. The demolition of fallacy is not as neat, attractive and politically appealing as the fallacy itself. It takes an eye for things that didn’t happened, the unseen consequences, the invisible, unidentified loser. It would seem that academic professionals would be above the politics and immune to logical inconsistency. College campuses, however, seem to be havens for misinformation, political correctness and misunderstanding of reality, the ivory tower syndrome. Being intimately aware of the trees, it seems they lose sight of the forest. The lesson for everyone, especially college students, is to maintain a healthy skepticism, keep an open mind and be aware that there is more to any matter than meets the eye. The search for truth means not accepting |