Chris Dillow: The Wykehamist fallacy

Chris Dillow examines The Wykehamist fallacy.

I suspect it’s partly because of a longstanding assumption among much of the Establishment, of which the BBC is part. This assumption is a form of the Wykehamist fallacy, the belief that members of that Establishment are jolly good chaps, usually because they went to the right schools and universities.

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In truth, of course, the Wykehamist fallacy is an ancient one. Adam Smith was describing something like it when he wrote:

We frequently see the respectful attentions of the world more strongly directed towards the rich and the great, than towards the wise and the virtuous. We see frequently the vices and follies of the powerful much less despised than the poverty and weakness of the innocent. (Theory of Moral Sentiments, I.III.29)

I think Dillow misses the class basis for the Wykehamist Fallacy — it is the objective of the ideological superstructure to convince us everything is fine with Capitalism. Theire relentless message is that Capitalism is Good, and Socialism is Bad.