Newer DOES NOT = Better!

A restaurant in town is closing after being open for about a year. It seems like only a year ago, that restaurant was full of people and every person in town was talking about how wonderful the food was.

In fact, I've noticed that any NEW restaurant in town receives acclaim for being GREAT.

My friends tease me because I am always skeptical - I don't like to eat at a new restaurant until it's been open a year!

People have the idea that New = Better and that's not always true. It's definitely not inherently true. It's a logical fallacy explained by the following:

X is new.

Therefore X is correct or better.

This sort of "reasoning" is fallacious because the novelty or newness of something does not automatically make it correct or better than something older.

Example: Joe has proposed that 1+1 should now be equal to 3. When asked why people should accept this, he says that he just came up with the idea. Since it is newer than the idea that 1+1=2, it must be better.

This idea is pervasive in our culture - it's found in business, advertising, health care, government, education, moral values and religion.

The challenge is to think critically and think for yourself.

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