Non-anticipation 115
Wise though the sages of old probably were, we can no more
presume in them the totality of wisdom than we can assume
complete stupidity.
If breakfast television is all that good, why has it taken so long for it to
appear?
(Because we didn't realize that people wanted even more pap with
their morning milk.)It is not just products and processes which are revolutionized
by invention; the same is true of changes in our living patterns.
People didn't need these long Christmas holidays years ago, why should
they now?
(They probably did need them years ago; they just couldn't afford
them. The same fallacy would have supported, and no doubt did, the
continuance of child labour in mines and factories.)The fallacy of non-anticipation is a great comfort to those
who, while possessing a conservative disposition, cannot actually
think of any arguments against the changes which are put
forward.
Mr Chairman, this proposal has been kicked around for more than
twenty years. If there were any merit in the idea at all, it would have
been implemented long before now.
(The beauty of this is that your current rejection will serve as extra
'evidence' against it in the future. Perhaps the reasons for past
rejection were equally frivolous.)To give added effect to the fallacy, you can enumerate some
of the phantom legions who could have taken up the idea but
did not. Their numbers appear to be ranged against the idea, like