The Elements of Eloquence: How To Turn the Perfect English Phrase

by Mark Forsyth

But there’s also something immensely powerful, something satisfying in a megalomaniacal, egocentric way, about forcing somebody to answer a question when you both know the answer already. Teachers do it. Policemen do it. Traffic policemen always bloody do it. ‘Is there any particular reason that you were doing 123mph … sir?’ And then they wait for an answer. ‘Did you think that the speed limit didn’t apply to you?’ And so on and so forth. The point of all this is not so that the copper in question can learn more about your motivations and beliefs. They lack such psychoanalytic curiosity. That’s why they’re traffic policemen. By making you answer a question to which they already know the answer, they are asserting their authority, and belittling yours. That’s also why they’re traffic policemen. That’s also why such a series of questions is called subjectio.