Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
Let’s start off by continuing to review the Manipulation Mini-series we covered earlier in this season. Today we’re going to review Part 2, which was False Urgency. False urgency is when someone tries to get you to take action by creating a strong feeling of urgency to take action…even when there’s not really any urgency there.
The questions to ask yourself when you’re faced with False Urgency are: “Do I even really want this? Is the urgency real or just a tactic to get me to buy?”
If you want to hear more about this fallacy, go back and check out Episode 47.
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Ok, our new fallacy for today is the Blind Loyalty Fallacy. The Blind Loyalty Fallacy happens when someone claims that the reason they did something (usually something wrong) is b/c they were just following or obeying what they were told to do, typically by an authority figure - a boss, a parent, a teacher, a commanding officer, etc.
This fallacy is also called the Blind Obedience Fallacy, the Team Player Fallacy, Appeal to Loyalty, and it’s also a form of Appeal to Authority, which we covered in Episode 20. But the Blind Loyalty Fallacy has some nuances that make it a little different.
Here’s an example: “My coach said we should only eat steak to get stronger for football, so I need you to cook me steak for breakfast, lunch & dinner.” “Well, what about other healthy things like chicken, eggs, fruits or vegetables?” “Nope, steak is the only thing I can have - I have to obey the coach!” Do you see how blind obedience to the football coach is going to have this player ignoring healthy wisdom about what foods he should eat?
Blind obedience can happen any time someone just follows rules or orders and doesn’t think about why they’re following those orders, whether the orders are right or wrong, or whether they actually make sense.
There is a famous poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Lord Alfred Tennyson, which has a line in it that exemplifies this Blind Obedience Fallacy. The history behind this poem is interesting, and it’s based on a true story, where more than 600 soldiers had to march to their death because of a blunder in the giving of orders. The famous line goes like this:
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!’
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
The problem with using the Blind Loyalty argument is that it avoids the question of whether the action was right or wrong. Saying you were just following orders isn’t a defense or a justification…it’s just an excuse. There’s no taking responsibility, just using an over-reliance on an authority to explain why you did or didn’t do something. We have to look further and ask the question about whether or not the action taken was right or wrong, good or bad on its own merit. Blind obedience isn’t an excuse for wrong action, and it’s not an excuse for shirking responsibility.
One of the other names for the Blind Loyalty Fallacy is the Nuremberg Defense. I had to use this as an example b/c you guys know how I love WW2 history! So, after WW2, the Allies held a military tribunal in Nuremberg Germany where they tried Nazis who were engaged in war crimes & the horrible treatment of millions of people during WW2 and the Holocaust. Infamously, one of the biggest defenses used by the Nazis who committed horrific crimes against humanity was this: “I was just following orders.” Some of them claimed they were afraid they would be shot themselves if they didn’t carry out the orders they were given by their commanding officers, so they did what they were told, even though they knew it was wrong. While it did serve to lessen their punishments, ultimately it didn’t matter - they were still held responsible for the crimes they committed.
Question to ask yourself: “Just because someone told me to do it, does that make it right?” *repeat*
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
