Authority of Ipse Dizzle

So continues my project of illustrating the informal fallacies using snail imagery. The argument from authority is important enough to boast two Latin names, argumentum ad verecundiam (argument to respect), and ipse dixit (he himself said it). I prefer ipse dixit because it's nicely percussive, like a swear word.

In my drawing, I wanted to emphasize the symbolic power of authority over a mass of people, but also the delicacy and uncertainty of the matter inside the heads of figureheads as well. I don't mean to imply here that all authoritative figures are full of hot air, but more that we don't always know exactly what's keeping them up there, unless we operated the balloon-filling station. Like a parade baloon, authority grows, dies, and moves slowly, while ideas move quickly, like little particles of helium, and we can only hope that our figureheads remain, well, full of it. Let's get down to brass tacks, so to speak, and puncture authority a bit by weighing the value of its heft in arguments. 

The argument from authority is the inverse of the ad hominem argument, which rejects an opponent's claim by defaming the opponent personally. Let's call our authority Calvin. The AFA goes like this:

1. Calvin makes a claim

2. Calvin is quite a guy

3. Calvin's claim must be true

Like ad hominem, the argument distracts from the mechanism of reasoning and truth seeking by focusing on some quality about the person making the claim.

Very often, the status invoked is delightfully absurd and obviously fallacious. For instance, I enjoy when Snoop Dog teaches children to count on Sesame Street—obviously an appeal to his status as a youth football coach. Verecundium that.

Still, are we supposed to assume that children should follow the counting methods of popular artists who probably don't even have degrees in counting? His previous attempts at counting and impersonating children's entertainment figures were a bit more roughshod.

One for the money

And two for the shizzo

I'm lil Goldie Loc that gives a flip* about a hizzo
Three to the fizzo

And five to the sizzacks . . .

Then again, rapping surely requires a sense of rhythm that requires counting, and—dear me! I seem to be giving in to the undertow of his streetwise charisma. But then again . . . 

Maybe Snoop actually falls into the second category of appeals to authority, in which the authority is actually related to the topic of the claim.  Sometimes these appeals are OK, or even necessary, because we have no greater source of expertise. But then, surely to trust the expert by default at all times is a folly. To quote that infallible authority, Wikipedia:

Experts can still be mistaken, willfully deceptive, subject to pressure from peers or employers, have a vested financial interest in the false statements, or have unusual [or widely criticized] views within their field, and hence their expertise does not always guarantee that their arguments are valid.

Yes, authority figures can be corrupt. Forget that Snoop's Cripped-out person isn't permitted to cross Australian borders (though the UK is now cool with him). You never know what kind of nefarious interest he may have in teaching kids to count to, say, 20 minutes or 20 dollars.

It's important to question even the most bona fide authority figures. What happened there at number 20? What exactly is Snoop doing on New York's Sesame St., anyway? And what's with the hairnet? Really, what do we know about his mathematical background? It seems that he doesn't believe in limits. Sometimes you may find the figurehead better qualified to speak to a different bailiwick. I for one prefer to trust Snoop for nonsense word generation.

From time to time, it doesn't hurt to pluck a medal from the nearest lapel and test it between your teeth. Frankly, though, I'm not touching anything shiny hanging from Snoop's torso area. Nor do I want to recognize all the substances that fill his balloon. I'm not actually that familiar with Snoop's music, so maybe I should be testing his CDs instead. As Eric Cartman famously advised, maybe this will teach me to listen to authority, or one of his many albums, before discussing the authority in a blog entry. For doing so scantily, I might be dead tomorrow, or more likely, ridiculed for not knowing more of Snoop's math-related lyrics. Of course, listening is more fun if the authority is smartly percussive. However, making sense of your authority is another kind of shizzle, as ipse dixit.


*If this had actually aired on Sesame Street, I'm sure this would have been the wording.