168 How to Win Every Argument
unstated part necessary to complete the argument, instead of
leaving them to blush naked.
Darling, I'm sorry. Busy people tend to forget such things as anniversaries.
(This is fine until your colleagues mention that you've done nothing
for two months except the Telegraph crossword.)
The fallacy is easy to use, and will get you off the hook in a wide
variety of situations. The procedure is simple. Give a general
statement as the answer to an individual situation. Your audience
will automatically assume the missing premise: that the general
situation applies to this particular case. What people normally do
in certain circumstances is only relevant to the charges against you
if it is assumed that you were indeed in those circumstances. The
unaccepted enthymeme will slide in as smoothly as vintage port.
Yes, I am rather late. One simply cannot depend on buses and trains any
more.
(True, but you walked from just around the corner.)
You can equally well make general assertions during a discus-
sion about someone in particular. Your audience's delight at gossip
and determination to believe the worst in everyone will help the
unaccepted enthymeme to mingle with the invited guests.
I'm not happy with the choice of Smith. One can never be happy with
those who prey on rich widows.
(Or on unjustified implications.)
The undistributed middle
Classic among schoolboy fallacies is the argument that because
all horses have four legs and all dogs have four legs, so all horses
