 |
| f.b + g = 1984 |
A
darkened room, whispering…
Julia: It’s getting like 1984.
Winston: What is?
Julia: FaceBook collecting
all your private data and putting it online.
Winston: False analogy. You volunteer your private information to
FaceBook. Orwell’s Big Brother was watching
you.
Julia: Well how about Google
then? It watches where you go and
collects that information without asking.
Winston: False analogy
again. Orwell’s Big Brother used the data to control the citizens. Google sells
your information.
Julia: It still feels like
1984 with all the spying going on.
Winston: I will say this
though. FaceBook and Google add up to something like 1984. It’s a partial
analogy.
_________________
Voice-over
An analogy compares A with B
and finds that they share features.
A false analogy is one where
A and B may superficially share features but underneath there is little
relevance or only a few shared features.
Hillary Clinton commented at
the UN on the recent civil unrest in Syria, that to compare Syria to Libya was
a “false analogy.”
Valid analogies may range
from strong through partial to weak. Winston’s reasoning that two false
analogies add up to a partial analogy is intriguing. It has an instinctive validity.
...
