Name the historical fallacy?

[Norbert 145]

Watched Dr Who the other week, and was bit surprised by the fact that a time travelling racist thought racial integration would be severely set back by stopping Rosa Parks protesting on the Montgomery bus that particular day.

 

I’m reminded of a friend who once said, ‘If it wasn’t for the Beatles we’d all still be listening to Jazz.’

 

I’m inclined to believe that in these situations that change is on it’s way or overdue, and that if there was no Rosa Parks or Beatles someone else would soon appear and fill their shoes or catalyze change.

 

So what I’m wanting to know is, is there an everyday name for this type of historical fallacy?

 

I’ve not been able to find one and for now shall have to call it the If It Wasn’t For The Beatles We’d All Still Be Listening To Jazz Fallacy.

 

Thanks for your consideration.

[Cyclone 10]

Some sort of tipping point fallacy. Not sure if there's an official name.

[Resident 1,193]

Tipping point is probably the best way to describe such events.

 

Certainly in the case of Rosa Parks there was a pressure building up which Ms Parks was essentially the release valve for. It's likely that had it not then that pressure may have become too much as it may have happened an entirely different way and maybe not in the direction that it did.

[medusa 16]

The issue is, I assume, that literally every little changed action could make a difference in a way that we cannot predict, theoretically at least.

 

If Mrs Parks had been on a different bus, with a driver who didn't challenge her at that time, or who didn't call the police but merely ejected her from the bus, what difference would that have made? Would other people have been sufficiently outraged to have protested by stopping using the bus entirely? I don't know, but then neither does anybody else.

[hauxwell 243]

I think Cyclone could be right. The tipping point that changed history.

Using the Beatles as an example reminds me of something John Lennon supposedly said about Elvis Presley, if there was no Elvis there would be no Beatles, so could that be a tipping point to.

It will be interesting to see if others come up with a different name for an historical fallacy.

[Norbert 145]

It’s more like it should be called the Key Agent Fallacy than the Tipping Point Fallacy.

 

While we are thankful for what they did or invented it would have happened anyway. We’d still have the phone, TV and internet without the famous inventors we know.

 

 

Technology was a big influence on music of 50/60s, as was co-incidentally the events set off by Rosa Parks. Electric guitars and Basses were a very recent introduction to Britain, Then things like multitrack recording, creative Producers, distortion, amplification etc.

 

The underlying forms don't change much, just the timbre.

[blake 10]

"If It Wasn’t For The Beatles We’d All Still Be Listening To Jazz."

 

of course it is a fallacy. Jazz was never an especially popular kind of music in the first place. Anywhere. Even when it was at its peak of popularity, in the US in the 1930s it was still not the most popular kind of music.

[petemcewan 27]

They got the wrong individual to start with.

 

 

" Image result for was rosa parks the first to refuse to give up her seat.

Claudette Colvin (born September 5, 1939) is a pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, nine months prior to Rosa Parks' famous arrest for the same offence."

 

So there was more than one person making history.

Tipping Points instead of Tipping Point might make a more adequate name for the phenomena.

Edited October 28, 2018 by petemcewan

[metalman 21]

It's a bit like the butterfly effect. Everybody thinks that if you go back in time and change the tiniest thing, it will have a massive effect on the future. But nobody thinks the same thing as they go about their day to day lives now - what effect will it have a long way in the future if I make this cup of tea now, or whatever?

[hauxwell 243]

It’s more like it should be called the Key Agent Fallacy than the Tipping Point Fallacy.

 

While we are thankful for what they did or invented it would have happened anyway. We’d still have the phone, TV and internet without the famous inventors we know.

 

 

Technology was a big influence on music of 50/60s, as was co-incidentally the events set off by Rosa Parks. Electric guitars and Basses were a very recent introduction to Britain, Then things like multitrack recording, creative Producers, distortion, amplification etc.

 

The underlying forms don't change much, just the timbre.

 

I think change was on the way in America, but Rosa a brave lady, highlighted the injustice and helped to bring the inevitable forward.

As for technology changes and inventors, bit out of my depth

We have two names now Key Agent Fallacy and Tipping Point.

ECCOnoob would be good on this Thread

Edited October 28, 2018 by hauxwell

[Eater Sundae 12]

It’s the “We must give everything a name instead of just accepting that stuff evolves” fallacy.

 

It reminds me of interviewers who insist asking “If there’s one thing...” when there’s invariably a whole range. We seem to have a need to simplify and reduce everything to a single headline.

[petemcewan 27]

Why not use ,"Catalyst".