Bifurcation 19
Political parties founded on an idealized view of human nature
frequently accuse their rivals of too frequently resorting to ad
baculum diplomacy. Sir William Browne delivered a well-wrought
epigram on the subject:
The King to Oxford sent a troop of horse,
For Tories own no argument but force:
With equal skill to Cambridge books he sent,
For Whigs admit no force but argument.
(It would be a close thing today to decide whether it would be harder
to find a Tory at Oxford than a literate man at Cambridge.)You can use the ad baculum when you have the force to
deploy and can escape the consequences of using it. The law is
there to prevent arguments always being won by the stronger,
and the many broken bones it would take to determine which
was he. But your threats need not be strong physical ones to be
effective. Many a speaker has gained his way by threatening to
make an intolerable nuisance of himself until his demands were
met. The Romans probably destroyed Carthage just to shut up
Cato.
Bifurcation
The presentation of only two alternatives where others exist is
called the fallacy of bifurcation. Sometimes known as the 'black
and white' fallacy, it presents an 'either/or' situation when in
reality there is a range of options.
If you are not with us, you are against us.