What does H. L. A. Hart say about gun control in the city of the 'dreaming
spires', as he called it (he meant Oxford, not Cambridge).
Is reduction of violence the end of civilisation?
That depends on how you spell civilization. Ghandi, a well-known
pacificist, was once asked by one of Rupert Murdoch's journalists:
Q: And what do you think of Western civilization?
Ghandi: I think it would be, on the whole, a good idea.
The implicature is that the correct Indian spelling (alla British) is
'civiliSation'.
Freud knew this when he objected to one translation of his book on
civilisation.
****
"The boy I love is up in the lavatory" -- Archie Rice, played by Sir
Laurence Olivier.
In a message dated 10/6/2015 5:16:47 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
This thesis, aside from whether it has a grain of truth, amounts to a kind
of ad hominem [there's a better latin tag, I'm sure, but I'm not going to
dig it out]. It is one that tends to skew rational debate.
It's an ad hominem that plays to the gallery
I think what may be meant is "ad populum".
Of course, since 'hominem' INCLUDES 'populum', there is some overlap here.
An argumentum ad populum (Latin for "appeal to the people") is a
fallacious argument that concludes that a proposition is true because many or
most
people believe it: "If many believe so, it is so."
This type of argument is known by several names, including
appeal to the masses,
appeal to belief,
appeal to the majority,
appeal to democracy,
appeal to popularity,
argument by consensus,
consensus fallacy,
authority of the many, and
bandwagon fallacy (also known as a vox populi), and in Latin as
argumentum ad numerum ("appeal to the number"), and
consensus gentium ("agreement of the clans").
It is also the basis of a number of social phenomena, including communal
reinforcement and the bandwagon effect. The Chinese proverb "three men make a
tiger" concerns the same idea.
Now, McEvoy's reference to the gallery opens newer implicatures.
Marie Lloyd popularised a song, "The boy I love is up in the gallery" --
which was incidentally parodied by Sir Laurence Olivier (playing Archie
Rice) in Osborne's "The Entertainer", as per the subject line of this.
The boy I love is up in the lavatory
the boy I love is looking down at me
Incidentally, the Roman colisseum had galleries, so I'm sure there is a
Latin motto for this, too?
"The boy I love is up in the gallery" was NOT written by Marie Lloyd but
FOR her. Upon reading the lyrics one sees that she is not playing, to use
McEvoy's idiom "to the gallery", but the _boy_ in the gallery. A slight
difference, and a cobbler*, into the bargain.
So one has to be careful has to title one's fallacies, alleged.
Now...
REFRAIN:
The boy I love is up in the gallery,
The boy I love is looking now at me,
There he is, can't you see, waving his handkerchief,
As merry as a robin that sings on a tree.
I
I'm a young girl, and have just come over,
Over from the country where they do things big,
And amongst the boys I've got a lover,
And since I've got a lover, why I don't care a fig.
II
The boy that I love, they call him a cobbler,
But he's not a cobbler, allow me to state.
For Johnny is a tradesman and he works in the Boro'
Where they sole and heel them, whilst you wait.
III
Now, If I were a Duchess and had a lot of money,
I'd give it to the boy that's going to marry me.
But I haven't got a penny, so we'll live on love and kisses,
And be just as happy as the birds on the tree.
Cheers,
Speranza
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