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One category of logical fallacies involves undermining the
question at center of the debate. Instead of giving errant reasons,
the user of this category tries to throw people off track, to forget the
point. One might employ this form of diversion by simply trying to
change the subject.
Mom: Did you break that lamp,
son?
Son: That's a good question
but I have a question as well: why was Sis allowed to come in after
her curfew last Friday night.
Maybe, just maybe, Mom will bite that worm and forget her
original question.
A more sophisticated -- and undeniably tougher to pull off
-- refinement of this technique is to use humor as the diversionary tactic.
Misuse of Humor, it's called, and done properly, one can laugh his way
right out the door of a tricky argument.
Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States, was a
master of the quip. Some would argue that he was a former actor and
that his quips were scripted, but that's to diminish his genuine talent.
He, like all comic personalities, undoubtedly had a library of jokes and
one-liners which he could yank out on a moment's notice. But his
ability to yank them out, blend them with his natural wit, and deliver
them warmly was a true gift.
In fact, it was a time when he was scripted that got him
into some trouble. During the first debate in the 1984 campaign with
Mondale he stammered and stuttered trying to recall the script. Nancy
was infuriated that he had been over-prepped and thus made her famous mandate:
"Let Reagan be Reagan."
In the second debate, Reagan was Reagan. On October
21, 1984 in Kansas City, Missouri, the world got a chance to see one the
greatest examples of the Misuse of Humor in action.
To fully appreciate it, one must understand that there had
been many whisperings about President Reagan's fitness for another term
in office. He would be 78 by the time a second term was up.
It was rumored that he fell asleep in cabinet meetings. His performance
in the previous debate hadn't defused questions about his the advancing
age. It was a legitimate question: was Reagan too old to be
elected to another term. But it was also a highly personal question.
How do you ask someone if he's too old to do something? It was a
question he would never have to answer.
Henry Trewhitt, a diplomatic correspondent for The Baltimore
Sun, was the first and last person to have the courage to put the question
directly to the President. Here's the transcript:
MR. TREWHITT: Mr. President, I
want to raise an issue that I think has been lurking out there for two
or three weeks, and cast it specifically in national security terms. You
already are the oldest President in history, and some of your staff say
you were tired after your most recent encounter with Mr. Mondale. I recall,
yes, that President Kennedy, who had to go for days on end with very little
sleep during the Cuba missile crisis. Is there any doubt in your mind that
you would be able to function in such circumstances?
REAGAN: Not at all, Mr. Trewhitt
and I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign.
I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and
inexperience.
Maybe he had planned it in advance, maybe it was just geniune
wit, whatever the case, the response to Reagan's shifting of the issue
from his age to Mondale's lack thereof was overwhelming. The hall
erupted in laughter. The camera cut to Mondale who had his head thrown
back in unabashed mirth.
But perhaps he would not be laughing so hard the next morning
or month when he realized that one of his most promising issues, Reagan's
age, had just laughed itself out of the election.
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