18 How to Win Every ArgumentIt would be better if you told us what we want to know. After all, we
wouldn't want your aged mother or your crippled sister to suffer, would
we?
(Probably yes.)The threatened force does not have to take the form of phys-
ical violence. The argumentum ad baculum is committed when-
ever unpleasant consequences are promised for failing to comply
with the speaker's wishes. ('If you do not bring us the plans of
the new missile, I regret I will be forced to send these photo-
graphs to the newspapers.')
The fallacy of the argumentum ad baculum lies in its intro-
duction of irrelevant material into the argument. Strictly speak-
ing, it leaves the argument behind, moving on to force as a
means of persuasion. While force is undoubtedly effective
sometimes in directing courteous attention to the speaker's
wishes, its use represents the breakdown and subversion of
reason.
The ad baculum, alas, performs on the public stage of inter-
national relations. Powerful countries which fail to get their own
way by reasoned discussion are not averse to tossing over an ad
baculum to influence the talks. If even this fails, they toss over
something a little larger.
Joseph Stalin was a master of the ad baculum. Indeed, he
made it his own to such an extent that his name is immortalized
in a line of Krushchev which sums up its potency: 'When Stalin
says "dance!" a wise man dances.' Stalin himself appears to have
taken the view that anyone without force to threaten had no
business being involved in international affairs. His famous
question, 'How many divisions has the Pope?', was in response to
a suggestion that the Pope should take part in an international
conference. As Stalin's enemies often discovered, argument is
not a very effective counter to an ad baculum.