Blinding with science 23
proposition is the same, whatever the language; and use of
language to make its acceptance easier is fallacious.
Although blinding with science can be used in any argument,
many will recognize the special domain of this fallacy as the
subjects which like to consider themselves as sciences, but are
not. Science deals with things from atoms to stars at a level
where individual differences do not matter. The scientist talks of
'all' rolling bodies or whatever, and formulates general laws to
test by experiment. The trouble with human beings is that,
unlike rolling bodies, the individual differences do matter. Often,
again unlike rolling bodies, they want to do different things.
Although this might prevent us from being scientific about
human beings, it does not stop us pretending to be so. What we
do here is to add the word 'science' onto the study, giving us
'economic science', 'political science' and 'social science'. Then
we dress them in that white coat of scientific language, and hope
that no one will notice the difference.
The transportation^ flow charts for the period following the post-
meridian peak reveal a pattern of décantation of concentrated passenger
units in cluster formations surrounding the central area.
(You could spend years formulating laws to predict this, and might
even be in the running for a Nobel prize. Just remember never to
mention that people are coming into town to have a bite to eat,
followed by a movie or a show...)The first rule for using this fallacy is to remember to use long
words. ('When the pie was opened, the birds commenced to
sing.') Never use a four-letter word, especially if you can think of
a 24-letter word to take its place. The jargon itself is harder to
master, but a subscription to New Society is a good investment.
Remember that the basic function of words is to prevent com-
munication. Their real task is to transform what is banal, trivial