The argumentation realizes semiotically the macro-strategy of legitimation, and specifically the strategy of rationalization: it is an example of the government’s attempt to legitimize its political strategy and the policies associated with it as necessary to the situation.
The argument is formally valid, but whether it is sound or not (i.e. whether it is a reasonable argument) depends upon the truth of its premises, We can challenge the argument, argue that it is fallacious, by challenging the truth of its premises (Letcu, 2006). I want to specifically question the premises on the grounds that they (a) predicate the possible success of problematic identity category as subject (‘we’), and (b) falsely claim that the change attributed to the modern world is simply an inevitable fact of life which ‘we’ must accept. Both of these flaws in the premised can be associated with the mocro-strategy of depoliticization.
With respect to the first flaw, the identity category ‘we’ is problematic in that it is based upon a false equation between ‘we’ = all the citizen of Britain: if Britain achieves ‘success’ or ‘prosperity’, it does not follow that all of its citizens do. This the ‘fallacy of division’, when a general category has properties which are mistakenly attributed to each of its parts. One sentence clearly implies that this does follow: ‘That is the route to commercial success and prosperity for all’. This fallacy is a banal feature of governmental discourse, but it is fundamental to the macro-strategy of depoliticization, who basic strategic goal is to dedifferentiate potentially antagonistic identities-the internal division of the political community into ‘us’ and ‘them’. In this sense, identity and the semiotic construal of identities are a major focus in analysis which prioritizes depoliticization.