Looking Like a Fool: Orwell

• “The young Buddhist priests were the worst of all. There were several thousands of them in the town and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans.” Hasty generalization: If one does it, it doesn’t mean all of them do it. There’s not enough evidence to conclude that none of them seemed to have anything to do except ‘stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans.’
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• “One day something happened which in a roundabout way was enlightening. It was a tiny incident in itself, but it gave me a better glimpse than I had had before of the real nature of imperialism — the real motives for which despotic governments act.” This is the beginning of Complex Cause, seeing as imperialism is an entity that can’t be narrowed down to one sole explanation. In this situation, Orwell is setting up the plot to later blame just one cause out of all the others.
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• “It is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant — it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery — and obviously one ought not to do it if it can possibly be avoided. “ False analogy: of course, seeing as this is purely fiction, it might be on part of the writer’s want to portray a specific image and thought. But in reality, comparing the death and dealing with an animal is not comparable to that of a costly piece of machinery.
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•  “They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching. And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The term for type of fallacy is beyond me, I don’t think it exists, or maybe I just haven’t heard of it. Either way, it should definitely be one. Reaching a conclusion based on an argument that is really not an argument at all, just an appeal to popularity or your image, should be a fallacy. Just saying.
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• “The people expected it of me and I had got to do it. This is just an example of bad conclusion.” People expect you to run naked in a presidential campaign the day before you’re about to be married to the First Daughter? Are you going to have to do it? I guess, in a way, this is also Appeal to Popularity.
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• “It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him.” Tautology: to shoot someone is basically to murder them. Unless he’s talking about friendly shooting of bullets of love and happiness, in which case I have no experience in the matter and take back what I said.
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•             “A white man mustn't be frightened in front of ‘natives’; and so, in general, he isn't frightened.” False analogy: I guess that is merely part of the culture and ergo being fearless in front of ‘natives’ is such a tough accomplishment that anything else would just be implied. But culture-less-wise, just the ‘if this, then this’ comparison just does not make sense and has no logic behind it.

           

He ends up shooting it and the elephant suffers. He feels like a pile of crap. He feels like crap. And yet, the ending line just stuck with me.

            “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.”

            Whoah.