Logical Fallacies and the Foundations of Truth/Reality

In studying the chart of the various logical fallacies, I was drawn to the listing of illegitimate appeals to the mind, such as appeals to popular belief, money, and established or assumed authority.  Two that caught my attention were the fallacies of appeal to novelty and appeal to tradition.  The examples of the zeal for the latest trend and the traditional conception of marriage as between man and woman were obvious examples of the perception of culture as a neutralizing agent for all presented arguments.  An innovation is merely new, not true.  The ideas that have passed some test of time may still be based on erroneous suppositions that could change with modern scientific discovery.  As I paused to take in this dissertation on what could make an argument fallacious, an intriguing application to this came up in the sports section of the local (Madison, WI) newspaper and television newscasts.

It appears that for the next two years, the boys and girls' state basketball tournaments will no longer be played at one site, the Kohl's Center of Madison.  In the next two years, the boys' event will continue to be held in Madison, while the girls' final round games will be played in Green Bay.  Thereupon, the reviewing body, the WIAA, will review the issue of placement.  The rationale of this move was based on site availability in an expanding use market in sporting events.  The newscasts were thorough and fair is assessing the situation, but felt a sense of loss, if not in tradition, at least in lost revenue.  The Wisconsin State Journal also reported the decision of the WIAA and the rationale behind this selection process, but also published an editorial on the need to return the WIAA boys and girls' basketball tourney to a single Madisonian site.  Again, the reference to lost revenue was echoed, along with a litany of a lost heritage of classic basketball battles in the capital city in the thrilling month of March.

Set side by side was the conflict of the novel and the traditional, the need for change with an impetus to accommodate future change to a traditional model.  It was maddening that Madison's personal loss was the underpinning of the whole matter, not the issue of availability, nor a site more central in the state to accommodate towns from the furthest northern section of the Badger State, nor an arena whose size could accomodate the several levels of competition in the huge structure of Wisconsin High School Basketball.  It pained Madison, and thus the issue runs large, never to be resolved until Madison monopolizes the tournament once again.

Is convenience and personal advantage the final groundings of what we are to accept as truth and reality?  On certain days I wonder, and remark that all the neccessary logical safeguards, the careful regard not to commit some logical fallacy, are being sacrificed to a central elite standard that determines what is acceptable as it benefits them and few others.  I would love to see the WIAA keep a tournament presence in Madison (tradition) but realize a need to impliment change (novelty).  A good solution would be a traditional construct that feels the impulse of adaptation and meets the needs as they arrive.  If traditions are to be maintained, work is in store to keep them valid.  And in that one sense, it proves the old French proverb, Le plus change, le plus reste.  The more things change ...