That's true for things above the level where quantum physics makes hash of such laws but for things which are not things, but lies, it has no bearing. Promoters of things for which there is no evidence whatever and promoters of lies, hoaxes and propaganda rely on the fact that no external force will impede, delay or arrest the appointed rounds of lies while truth often demands too much of us. Every day a new crop of gullible witlings and angry little twits is born to be deluded. Call it Barnum's Law.
I saw this once again the other day, it's been defaming anyone with any intention and a great number of people without the intention of modifying the national policies on private ownership of firearms.
Fact
is never the test of belief, if it were, this thing wouldn't keep
appearing all over the place. I've been seeing it for years and so far
it seems more ridiculous every day, but as long as the need for Obama to
be scandalous exceeds the supply of scandals, it might as well be a
perpetual motion machine.There's as little evidence that it will cease to orbit and burn up in the atmosphere as there is for any actual scandal to have occurred, but it doesn't matter in a nation where half of us are so greedy for scandal, desperate for outrage and hungry for something, anything to anchor our prejudice and feed our greedy need to feel superior by knowing things we don't care enough about to research.
So sure, Hitler will always have said what he didn't say and the Obama scandal will always be quickly approaching and your God and your Guns and your freedom to ignore decency, the law and the tenets of both Capitalism and Christianity will continue to make a stink that no fact will diminish and no test of logic impair.
"Famous quotes need famous mouths," so said author Ralph Keyes. One example of a runaway misappropriation of a quote was from a Presbyterian minister and public speaker, William Boetcker, who, in 1916, produced a pamphlet of maxims next to which was also produced sayings by Abraham Lincoln. Over the years, the maxims became misattributed to Lincoln, and no one bothered to research whether or not they were truly his. These "Lincoln" maxims have been around for years, and even Ronald Reagan used them in a speech, without having their veracity of ownership checked--they served the purpose of enforcing Republican dogma, and to hell with whether the author was a minister or a US president. Now these fake Lincoln maxims belong to the ages:
ReplyDelete"We cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong" and "We cannot help the poor by kicking the rich." Boetcker's collection of maxims eventually crystallized as the list of ten now familiar entries (variously known as the "Industrial Decalogue," the "Ten Don'ts," the "Ten Cannots," "Ten Things You Cannot Do, "or the "American Charter"):
* You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
* You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
* You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
* You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
* You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
* You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
* You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
* You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
* You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
* You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.
SOURCE: Snopes
PS. I'm cross-posting this at Progressive Eruptions.
Lies are the most powerful force in human affairs, aren't they? Thy maxims are proverbs of ashes, as Job said to the Republicans, but people love maxims so much they will have them, true or not and won't ever check their facts. In fact they will reject the facts to preserve them. They will hang on to them like a dog with some carrion bone.
ReplyDeleteI compared it to physical law and I stand by it because I think these things cannot be eliminated once a sufficient number of people have seen it. it will always pop up again and the supply of willfully gullible people is endless. In politics, religion, history and almost every area of study, people are hunter-gatherers who will mine the past for things they can use to have fun with and feel important for doing so. Washington will always have chopped down a cherry tree. Moses will always have parted the red sea, Jefferson will always have been a charismatic evangelist and Reagan will always have 'won' the Cold War.
Foxzombies
ReplyDeleteFox truly is a cult -- meets every test, matches every definition. I know very intelligent and educated people who go all glassy-eyed at the mention of Krauthammer. I really think of Fox as the biggest danger to America and perhaps the world in existence today.
Delete