Thursday 7 February 2013

Huhne: Ad Hominem, Ad Feminam

In polite society of all political and intellectual shades, it is jolly bad form to argue ad hominem - playing the man not the ball, don't you know.  And exceptional men are, well, exceptional and to be treasured for it - so why shouldn't we expect them to be a bit unusual in their extra-mural dealings as well ? 

So, for example, these chaps writing in the Inde reckons that Chris Huhne's services to climate change handsomely outweigh his misdemeanours.
"Lest we forget: Huhne saved the international climate change negotiating process virtually single-handed at Cancun in Dec 2010
"Huhne ought in the end to be remembered for his public achievements rather than private sins. Exceptionally bright, he took a strong first from Oxford. He was then an acclaimed Business Editor of The Independent, a brilliant entrepreneur in the City, a brave and principled MEP, a diligent and popular MP, and universally recognised as one of the most effective ministers in government ...I still feel an overwhelming sympathy for this brilliant man ... Adulterers JFK, Martin Luther King, Gandhi – went on to score great victories for humanity ... Our public life has lost a distinguished servant"
Actually, our public life has lost a very determined and aggressive liar, bully, and all-round reprobate; so let's reverse the logic and give a moment's thought to what that might tell us about his 'public achievements'.  Yep, that's ad hominem for you, but an eminently logical thought-process to boot.  Why shouldn't we wonder whether his aggressive lying, bullying and general immorality were deployed more widely than towards his nearest and dearest?  Might he have been lying about one or two other matters ..? 

And to supplement the a priori reasoning, let me chuck in an empirical observation.  The only person I have known personally who sought to offload speeding points to wifey (and had the gall to obtain written legal advice before doing so) was a man who, upon his unexpected demise, was found to have been in possession of multiple mistresses and a large quantity of embezzled cash.

Y'see, coincidences are there to be considered carefully.  Now, let's go back to that list of achievements ...

ND 

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Time for a refund of all those "green taxes" levied on man made yada, yada.. And the heads of east anglia and a few other door knobs to roll...., let alone all the miss-directed capital into both illogical investments, and payments to well placed parasites built around transfers to "third world" states that needs to be re-jigged somehow!!!!gvmrims

Pogo said...

"Lest we forget: Huhne saved the international climate change negotiating process virtually single-handed at Cancun in Dec 2010...

For which he deserves to be locked up for far longer than for mere "perversion of justice". His lunatic "energy" policies will result in the deaths of far too many of the UK's poorer, and especially older, citizens from hypothermia and its related problems.

Barnacle Bill said...

Mr Huhne can never make up for the deaths, grief and hardship that his and his party's policies are causing and will continue to inflict upon us.
Cushioned as he and the rest of our political elite are by their trough.
Perhaps Mr Huhne would like to go for a walk in the woods before his appointment to the Wandsworth Hundreds.

Botogol said...

I don't know: do you think it's that rare for spouses to take points for eachother, to save a licence?

I know someone who took points for his daughter, just to save on insurance costs.

I wonder if what has spooked Huhne is if there really was coercion invovled. That's a different matter.

Jan said...

Agree Nick...the private and the public are inter-linked whether we like it or not so if one lies and cheats at home chances are it happens in one's public life too.

Electro-Kevin said...

I think that 'polite company' not going for the ad hominem is one of the reasons why the country is fucked.

It means too many second raters getting to the top of the system. Perhaps the real reason for this convention is self preservation.

The same reasons, perhaps, why 'polite company' won't talk about mass immigration.

It's very difficult to do without sounding racist but mainly it's because it suits them down to the ground. It satisfies their altruistic save-the-world instincts whilst getting the beastly working class to pay for it.

The preservation of self image at no personal cost.

Anonymous said...

Gandhi's "great victory for humanity" was the partition of India, and over a million deaths --not to mention the corruption, superstition and squalour that followed his particular brand of Hindu nationalism.

Ryan said...

Before this farce I had never heard of this "great man" who had saved the world many times over. Seems he has friends in left places, or maybe the newspaper that was a hidey-hole for Johann Hari has a particular fondness for outrageous liars and cheats.

Anonymous said...

Your inability to distinguish between ad hominem and ad personam is itself ad hominem, entitling you for a full refund for your supposed education

Agence communication said...

really this is interesting to me "" Actually, our public life has lost a very determined and aggressive liar, bully, and all-round reprobate; so let's reverse the logic and give a moment's thought to what that might tell us about his 'public achievements'. Yep, that's ad hominem for you, but an eminently logical thought-process to boot. Why shouldn't we wonder whether his aggressive lying, bullying and general immorality were deployed more widely than towards his nearest and dearest? Might he have been lying about one or two other matters ..? ""