How to Use Money
The tiger and the boar were discussing what they should buy to make the school more comfortable using the money collected by their classmates.
The tiger said,
“I often go to the library, so I suggest buying some books and fluffy sofa.”
The boar got angry and said,
“Boo! It'd be better to use money for the playground, don't ya think? What if someone gets injured while they're playing? Don't you even care? Ugh, how awful!”
The tiger was taken aback and replied,
“A school is the place to study! How come you can ignore students who want to study in the library?! Are you dumb?”
The boar's face turned red. “What?! Say that again!””
They almost started beating each other up when a friend of the boar called him over, so he left the classroom.
Then the octopus appeared.
“Hi Tiger, what’s wrong? You seem to be fired up.”
“Hey, Octopus. Listen. Boar said it's not worth it to buy books or a nice sofa for the library, and he wants to spend money on the playground instead. Everyone at school uses the library to study, but Boar obviously thinks it's not an important place! What's your opinion?”
The octopus had no idea what to say, but started to talk anyway.
“I suppose both of a library and a playground are important for students. Exercise is just as necessary as studying. How about if we spend a half on the library and the other half on the gym?”
The tiger calmed down and thought for a minute.
“Yeah, you're right. It sounds like a good idea. Let’s ask Boar.”
After coming back to the classroom, the boar agreed to octopus’ idea too.
A few days passed, and the money was already used up.
They didn’t have enough money to improve both the library and the playground perfectly, so finally they could buy a few books and have a broken soccer goal fixed.
The boar said,
“I suppose we should have discussed more and set the priority. I am very sorry for snapping at you, Tiger.”
The octopus said,
“I am sorry for suggesting a half-baked idea.”
The tiger said,
“We could've found a better way if we hadn't lost our tempers, haha.”
The three reconciled and together they made their school a better place.
[Commentary]
During a discussion, people may commit the straw man fallacy, which is a way to contort your opponent’s opinion and attack it. In this story, the boar falsely concluded that the tiger didn't care if his friends were injured on the playground. Even though the tiger just wanted to make the library comfortable and tranquil. On the other hand, the tiger also assumed that the boar didn't care about the comfort of the students who wanted to study in the library. However, in reality the boar just wanted to make the playground safe.
The middle ground fallacy, which says that the middle between two extremes is the truth, can also be seen here. In this story, the octopus suggested a compromise between the tiger and the boar, but the result was lackluster. Finding the middle ground can be the best solution in some cases, but not in every one.
Reference："strawman"
”middle ground”