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In my time writing for the paper’s Opinion section I have been confronted many times with personal attacks in an attempt to dismantle my arguments. What these attackers are hoping for is that I will be dismayed from my position simply by virtue of the fact that less than reputable characters hold to such views. This is a fallacy held upon a fallacy.
In the first place, when did America become a nation of label-givers? I see this all the time occur here at West Georgia and everywhere else I’ve been. The labels of liberal or conservative are perhaps the most popular. It is as if we have put in place a labelocracy in which we only listen to the views of those whom share our respective labels. This only serves to muddle up any possible discourse occurring between differently labeled parties.
It seems as if in an attempt to make life easier for everyday man, we have committed a great crime against our understanding. We have attempted to make his life easier by labeling the world for him so he doesn’t have to busy himself with understanding it. In doing so, we have left ourselves without many who truly understand discourse. In order for it to be possible we must start by taking the other seriously. It seems our labeling, or rather mislabeling, has blinded us to the other completely. What we see is simply a label. We are essentially then, fighting straw men and thinking we are the better.
What someone is doing then when they label me as “Postmodern” or “liberal loony” simply because I am providing opposition to their view is closing off discourse. My opposition to a particular view should not make me then, the opposition in all cases. That is what our addiction to labeling has gotten us then, it has made every issue an “us vs. them” matter. While humans may stay in communities and may live according to traditions widely held in those communities, they are never, even in that case, simply the community. As individuals we find ourselves in context at all times but this is not the sum of who we are. What we need to do then, is take people seriously.
The fallacy is that in attacking the individual for what seems to be a label we already find ourselves opposed to, we also label him/her according to what we perceive to be his/her origin. We can never really know the individual’s origin or context. We do not have the ability to penetrate him/her and see how he/she really sees the world. Here, labeling is improper. Labeling itself, is a very useful tool to us. We often label with our minds so as to perceive the world with more efficiency. However its usefulness ends when labeling keeps us from gaining understanding. In order to make good decisions democratically we must take the opposition to our views seriously. In order to do this we must take the individual who voices opposing views seriously and in order to take that individual seriously we must understand what those views are based on their own merit. So, please let us stop labeling each other when considering what the other has to say. In attacking the other view using the Genetic Fallacy you are not only doing them a disservice but also hurting your own ability to understand the world by missing out on discourse.
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