Things That Just Ain't So

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so — Mark Twain (maybe).

The Chinese word for crisis is composed of the symbols for "danger" and "opportunity." False. The historical Buddha was fat. False. It is illegal to shout the word “fire” in a crowded theater. False. The Great Pyramids of Egypt were constructed by slave labor. False. Listening to Mozart enhances intelligence. False. Sugar causes hyperactivity in children. False. The common cold is caused by cold. False. Isaac Newton was inspired to study gravity by an apple falling on his head. False. Marie Antoinette said "Let them eat cake." False. The United States Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776. False. Albert Einstein failed grade school mathematics. False. Mussolini made the trains run on time. False. People use ten percent of their brain. False. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, Thomas Crapper invented the flush toilet, James Watt invented the steam engine, Henry Ford invented the automobile and the assembly line, and Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet. All False. The Rolling Stones were performing “Sympathy For the Devil '' during the stabbing incident at 1969 Altamont Free Concert. False. Skinheads are all white supremacists. False. Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day. False. George Washington had wooden teeth. False. The Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves in America. False. Greek philosopher Pythagoras discovered the Pythagorean theorem. False. Medieval Europeans believed the earth was flat. False.The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was caused by Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern. False. Prohibition made the drinking of alcohol illegal. False. Orson Welles’s 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds caused widespread panic. False. The dark side of the moon means it doesn't receive light. False. Half of body heat is lost through the head. False. A meteor’s heat upon entering the earth’s atmosphere is primarily caused by friction. False. Tang, velcro, and teflon were off-shoots of technology developed by NASA. False. The sun is yellow. False. Bulls are enraged by the color red. False. A wolf pack has an "alpha" male. False. The Quran promises martyrs 72 virgins in heaven. False. Saint Augustine said, “God created Hell for inquisitive people.” False. Jesus was born on December 25. Doubtful.

These represent but a tiny sampling of well-documented "misconceptions" (and their underlying sources) that make up so-called conventional wisdom, bringing to mind the Simon and Garfunkel lyrics, "When I think of all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all," which continued with the detritus of old wive's tales, superstitions, implanted cultural myths -- die, Disney, die! -- from the popularization of pseudoscience, urban legends, and agenda-pushing factoids.

They're all there in our focus piece List Of Common Misperceptions. The list may seem somewhat daunting but they're all nicely organized by subject matter -- arts and culture; language; music; religion; law; literature; sports; history; science; mathematics; chemistry; material science; internet; economics; environmental science; geography; human body and health; inventions; physics; psychology and neuroscience -- to invite you, perhaps, to be humbled as you choose an area in which you fancy yourself as having some great expertise. Or you might choose to just take a random walk through the entries and splash around in those things that "just ain't so."

All in fun, of course, but maybe there's an important point to be made (and discussed). Our very first Member Monday almost seven years ago was a double session dedicated to the review of United States history from the perspective of those who were roadkill on the road to America's greatness MM 7/5/16 A People's History Of The United States. The stories were brutal, largely whitewashed (assuming their own truth) from the standard history books.

The question thus raised is the extent to which a credulous public might remain vulnerable not only to false facts but to manufactured narratives leading to everything from an overbearing pompous ignorance to bad policy to the incitement for war. Pass it on.

Hence the most radical of ideas: Think for yourself.