Posted: Feb 24, 2013 8:03 pm
Mr.Samsa wrote:chairman bill wrote:How on earth does that follow? Imagine a similar statement made about murderous tendancies, with the x axis showing a variation from 'psychopathic', through something like 'murderous', to 'violent tendancies', and onto an extreme of 'peace-loving'. By your analysis, the ideal position would be somewhere between murderous & violent tendancies.
Indeed - it's called the golden mean fallacy, the idea that if two extremes exist, then the "correct" or "best" position is somewhere in between. As you correctly point out though, sometimes the most appropriate position is one of the extremes. For example:
"Bob says we should buy a computer. Sue says we shouldn't. Therefore, the best solution is to compromise and buy half a computer."
Why can't Bob just buy himself a computer and leave Sue to do with her money as she sees fit?
Socialism would be Bob using Sue's money to buy it
Capitalism would be Sue selling it to him.