Temperantlam, argumentum ad 159
(He might have added: between truth and falsehood, between vice
and virtue, between falling asleep and staying awake, between sense
and nonsense.)In countries and situations where bargaining is more common
than fixed price transactions, people routinely manipulate the
extremes in order to influence the idea of a 'fair' average. Exactly
the same procedure can be used in public life, advocating an
extreme position in order to pull the eventual settlement closer
to your way of thinking.
Only in England do people write books with titles like The
Middle Way, elevating the argumentum ad temperantiam into a
guide for public policy. The Liberal Party used to make a career of
the fallacy, regularly taking up a position midway between those
of the two main parties, and ritually denouncing them for
extremism. The main parties, in their turn, contained this threat
by bidding for 'the middle ground' themselves. This led the
Liberals to become extremists in order to attract attention. In
Britain New Labour was built upon the temperantiam. They
called it the Third Way.
One side represents capitalism; the other stands for socialism. We offer
instead a policy of co-partnership to replace the old politics of conflict
and extremism.
(So alluring is this type of thing to the ad temperantiam mind, that the
other parties hastily produce versions of it.)When you use the argumentum ad temperantiam yourself, you
should try to cultivate that air of smug righteousness which
shows it to best advantage. Remember that your opponents are
extremists, probably dangerous ones. They are divisive and
destructive. Only you, taking the middle course, tread the vir-
tuous path of moderation.