How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic (2006)

104 How to Win Every Argument

Where you have control of events, you can afford to be less

subtle: 'I don't care what time it is. Get to bed this minute.'

Lazarutn, argumentant ad

The poor may indeed be blessed; but they are not necessarily
right. It is a fallacy to suppose that because someone is poor that
they must be sounder or more virtuous than one who is rich. The
argumentum ad Lazarum, after the poor man, Lazarus, takes it
that the poverty of the arguer enhances the case he or she is
making.

The guru has nothing to gain by lying or fooling anyone; all he has are

the nuts that he lives on.

(And the ones that he teaches.)

Poverty does not contribute to the soundness of an argument,

any more than riches do. The fallacy consists of giving attention

to the person instead of to the contentions which he or she is

putting forward. It may well be that the poor are less exposed to

the temptations of affluence, but it may equally be that the rich

are less distracted by disease, hunger and degrading toil, and the

temptations to escape them. Even if we take it that a person who

eschews wealth is not acting for material gain, we should

remember that there are other ways of achieving satisfaction. 'All

power is delightful', we are told, 'and absolute power is abso-

lutely delightful.'

Although we should not take account of the circumstances of

the arguer, the ad Lazarum is deeply engrained into our thinking.

We tend to suppose that the poor have less opportunities for

error, having less opportunity, full stop. The literature of our