You’re right. Making the decision to put down the rebellion might indeed be the right one. My goal is not to say what the correct decision is, but instead to point out that making the decision purely on the semiotics of the situation is fallacious.
In other words, it is at least plausible that the cost of putting down the rebellion is more than the benefit of increased respect in international diplomacy. The right way to make the judgement is to weigh these costs against the benefits. But often, people and institutions and countries make decisions based purely on the symbolic meaning of their actions without explicitly accounting for whether these symbolic acts have consequential backing.
Oh it wasn’t a criticism of the underlying idea, just feedback for you that the example wasn’t being effective for its intended illustrative purpose. And thank you for the “semiotic fallacy” idea, I’ve already incorporated it into my lexicon.
You’re right. Making the decision to put down the rebellion might indeed be the right one. My goal is not to say what the correct decision is, but instead to point out that making the decision purely on the semiotics of the situation is fallacious.
In other words, it is at least plausible that the cost of putting down the rebellion is more than the benefit of increased respect in international diplomacy. The right way to make the judgement is to weigh these costs against the benefits. But often, people and institutions and countries make decisions based purely on the symbolic meaning of their actions without explicitly accounting for whether these symbolic acts have consequential backing.
Oh it wasn’t a criticism of the underlying idea, just feedback for you that the example wasn’t being effective for its intended illustrative purpose. And thank you for the “semiotic fallacy” idea, I’ve already incorporated it into my lexicon.