When I was in High School, I thought the Aes Sedai were oh-so-clever, but making the truth dance is still immoral even if you don't speak literal falsehoods. That journalists of all stripes continue playing this game is partly why I consider their moral development on par with teenagers'.
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Why are you called The Motte?
A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey",
originally identified by
philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial
but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
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Notes -
When I was in High School, I thought the Aes Sedai were oh-so-clever, but making the truth dance is still immoral even if you don't speak literal falsehoods. That journalists of all stripes continue playing this game is partly why I consider their moral development on par with teenagers'.
Oh, for sure. I don't think Robert Jordan intended the Aes Sedai to be moral role models.
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