Empty Sandwich, The

David Fleming
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A statement which sounds plausible but which is discovered to actually mean nothing at all.

It does not even have the distinction of being wrong; it inhabits a dry and barren logic of its own:

The more people see of one another and the more they do business with each other, the less likely they are to go to war. A more mobile world will also be a more stable world, both politically and socially.

Rod Eddington, outgoing chief executive of British Airways and the government’s transport advisor, presenting the case for a national/EU-wide road pricing scheme, June 2005.E100

 

Related entries:

Fallacies, Informal Logic.

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David Fleming
Dr David Fleming (2 January 1940 – 29 November 2010) was a cultural historian and economist, based in London, England. He was among the first to reveal the possibility of peak oil's approach and invented the influential TEQs scheme, designed to address this and climate change. He was also a pioneer of post-growth economics, and a significant figure in the development of the UK Green Party, the Transition Towns movement and the New Economics Foundation, as well as a Chairman of the Soil Association. His wide-ranging independent analysis culminated in two critically acclaimed books, 'Lean Logic' and 'Surviving the Future', published posthumously in 2016. These in turn inspired the 2020 launches of both BAFTA-winning director Peter Armstrong's feature film about Fleming's perspective and legacy - 'The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilisation?' - and Sterling College's unique 'Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time' online courses. For more information on all of the above, including Lean Logic, click the little globe below!

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