One of the ruse put forth by the PAP to hoodwink the public, is suggesting options they proffer under the circumstances they dictate, in which leads to the same outcome. Thus the Morton’s Fork; a specious piece of reasoning in which contradictory arguments lead to the same (unpleasant) conclusion. Lose-lose situation for the common Singaporean, and win-win situation for them and their sycophants. Thusly this is one form of the many deceptions.
Control the options: Get others to play the cards you deal – “The best deceptions are the ones that seem to give other person a choice: Your victims feel they are in control, but are actually your puppets. Give people the options that come out in your favor whichever one they choose. Force them to make choices between the lessor of two evils, both of which serve your purpose. Put them on the horns of dilemma: They are gored wherever they turn.”
Fig 1: Morton’s fork Situation (Fallacy) from mainstream media, Straits Times – Click for full size
DPM Teo Chee Hean condemns extreme views on immigration stance, however the fallacy comic in fig 1 clearly illustrates their posturing oxymoron. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Uninhibitedly slower Pace of life attest a better quality of life (increasing personal and family time nurtures happiness), however this might not be the case as showed in fig 1 and a minister’s crowing remark that “Slower pace of life, economic growth not mutually exclusive”. PAP unquestionably menace or rather ‘implies’ that this could mean reduction in salaries (already low), bonuses, etc. Despite PM Lee preaching their “strategic shift” and “new way forward”, the fallacy only shows their obstinateness and the ostensible purpose but real goal; status quo.
The false options:
1. High Economic Growth, maintaining the status quo
2. Moderate Pace of Life attest better Quality of Life
Proffering false options and using this method of controlling people’s alternatives, they choose the options that give you power because neither are pleasant. Putting issues into “black or white” terms is a common instance of this fallacy. A la the infamous quandary “Grow at all cost” or zero growth, all or nothing and discerning tug between the two. In this case giving you something, and take away something, leaving you with a false dilemma – believing you have a choice between the two.
“Minister K Shanmugam has said a slower pace of life cannot be divorced from economic growth.
He was responding to a recent survey by the Institute of Policy Studies that revealed the majority of Singaporeans would like a comfortable pace of life over economic development.
Mr Shanmugam was speaking at a fireside chat with law students from the National University of Singapore and the Singapore Management University.He noted that people often divorce the idea of growth from their personal income, but he stressed that economic growth has a direct impact on employment and salaries.
Mr Shanmugam also said while a greater amount of online discourse has emerged — which means having to engage public opinion on specific issues of interest — the essential nature of how the government operates has not changed.- K Shanmugam
Law and Foreign Affairs Minister” – source
The thesis if Economic growth is solely derived from long working hours, and hasty pace of life – it is likely due PAP’s failure to raise the level of productivity and efficiency of our economy. If government do not advocate whilst push companies to do their part on raising productivity and efficiency in the workplace for workers, thus Singaporeans will have to work longer hours to achieve the same level of productivity compared to other “first world” countries.
Singapore being the country with the highest GINI Coefficient, do you even assume large part of the “Growth” is trickling down to benefit the common workers?
Gini Coefficient / Income Inequality (Singapore) <Credits: TheHeartTruths>
Words like “options”, “freedom”, and “choice” evoke a power of possibility far beyond the reality of the benefits they entail. When examined closely, the choices we have – in the marketplace, in elections, policy decision making, in our jobs – tend to have noticeable limitations: They are often a matter of a choice simply between A and B, with the rest taken out of the picture. Yet as long as the faintest mirage of choice flickers on, we rarely focus on the missing options. We “choose” to believe that the game is fair, and that we have our freedom to choose.
They force our hand, but indirectly: We seem to have a choice. Whenever people feel they have a choice, they walk into their trap that much more easily.
This supplies the clever and cunning with enormous opportunities for deception. For people who are choosing between alternatives find it hard to believe they are being manipulated or deceived; they cannot see that the PAP are allowing them a small amount of free will in exchange for much more powerful imposition of their own will.
An adage: The Bull backs you into a corner with its horns – not a single horn, which you might be able to escape, but a pair of horns that trap you within their hold.
Run right or run left – either way you move into their piercing ends and are gored.
Gored from Bull fight
Bullshit Politician
*The author blogs at http://bullshitpolitician.wordpress.com