Damning the alternatives 45
Chelsea good. It might be that all football teams are absolutely
terrible.)The fallacy occurs because in leaving out the performance of
alternatives not referred to, we exclude material which might be
relevant to a decision. Second, by introducing material which
denigrates others in cases where a simple judgement is required,
we bring in irrelevant matter.
Damning the alternatives is the fallacy of the partisan. Anxious
to elevate his own village, nation, team, church, occupation, race
or class, he thinks he does so by running down the others. Rupert
Brooke used the fallacy for humorous effect in his famous poem,
The Old Vicarage, Grantchester'.* Amongst the praise for
Grantchester itself are sandwiched adverse comments on the
other villages in the area. He tells us:
For Cambridge people rarely smile,
Being urban, squat and packed with guile...
Strong men have run for miles and miles
When one from Cherry Hinton smiles...
Strong men have blanched and shot their wives
Rather than send them to St Ives.In British elections it is considered bad form for a candidate to
promote his own cause by castigating his opponents; he lets his
election agent do it instead. In the USA there is no such
compunction:
You takes your choice: a convicted rapist, an adulterer, a practising
pervert, an embezzler and me.*Rupert Brooke, 'The Old Vicarage, Grantchester', in Brooke, Collected Poems
(London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1918).