Time once again for us martial arts bloggers to learn:
1) How NOT to make a case for or against someone or something
2) Why certain comments set our teeth on edge
3) How to stay focused when discussing our arts
Teenage Boy: ‘Bye Mom!
Mom: Where are you going?
Boy: Kevin’s house.
Mom: You have homework. No dice.
Boy: Awww… But we were all gonna work out together. You said you wanted me to get more exercise.
Mom: What exactly were you intending to do at Kevin’s house?
Boy: Kevin and some of the guys bought Sensei Rockum Sockum’s Home Study Karate Kourse, and we were just gonna, you know, just fool around with some moves.
Mom: Upstairs and do your homework, young man. That is too dangerous.
Boy: But, Moooooooooooooooooom! Everyone is doing this! There’s even videos for free on YouTube!
Mom: NOW. March.
Boy: Awwwwwwwwwwwww!
Mom: Quit complaining, get a good grade on the next history test, and we’ll see about getting you into a real Karate school.
Ohhh, the classic “If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you do it?”
Just because “everyone” is or isn’t doing something doesn’t mean there is a good, sound, logical reason to engage in an activity, buy a product, or refrain from doing something.
Even if three quarters of the world is, let’s say, ice skating, and even if all those people can give good, solid reasons for continuing to skate, does that mean ice skating is an excellent activity for every single person in the world? Not necessarily. People living in desert countries might give it a miss. Some are too obese, too old, or to young to balance on skates. You get the idea.
Bandwagon is often used in advertising. One might find bandwagon catchy or attention-getting in the context of advertising one’s school. But when it comes down to making a case for or against something like contracts or wearing groin protection, bandwagon just doesn’t fly. Good solid research helps.
If you’d like to learn more, you can follow along in the book The Fallacy Detective by Nathaniel Bluedorn and Hans Bluedorn
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