Another “not” theory
Some time ago I wrote about a bullshit detector — that if you can add “not” to a sentence and it makes just as much sense, then it’s bullshit. Yesterday Stephen told me about another one, which was coincidentally used by Simon Hoggart today. This theory says that if the negative of a sentence is clearly ridiculous, then the thing itself wasn’t worth saying.
Simon Hoggart demonstrates it like this:
Yesterday [Charles Kennedy] declared: “We go nowhere if we opt to stand still. Standing still is not an option for me, and I don’t think it is an option for you.”
When I hear resounding stuff like this I mentally reverse it, since it’s a good rule that if the opposite of something is absurd it wasn’t worth saying in the first place. Thus: “Fellow Liberals, it is time to stand still and let the world push past us!
“Ahead lie the challenges of change - great challenges - but none so great that they cannot be ignored. We must not be afraid to rebuff opportunity.
“Siren voices tell us that we should look forward to the future. But we cannot know what the future will bring. Looking to the future is as pointless as basing our policies on tarot cards.
“There are tough choices ahead, and we must look for the easy answers…”
A handy tool for us all.
