I was reading a novel yesterday (The confessions of Max Tivoli) in which the main subject (an aging backwards old man who appears as a young boy) mentions something about the “outrageous lies” taught in elementary school and it reminded me of my own experience. If you went to public school in the USA, you were probably taught as a young child (1st or 2nd grade) about George Washington and the cherry tree. The gist of which is that George chopped down one of his father’s favorite cherry trees as a boy. When his father found out about the cherry tree and got mad, George immediately confessed. This was supposed to show how honest he was. It was repeated on a number of occasions in history classes (over several years), but at one point, in 4th or 5th grade, I somehow figured out it was not true (I know for sure at least one teacher confirmed this – she said it was a fable to teach a lesson). I was outraged – if grownups, teachers no less, would lie to students about something so inconsequential in the service of demonstrating honesty – what else were they lying about?
So it was at about 12 years old, I learned to distrust authority. I was lucky though because I don’t think most children understood the ramifications of this and it’s really no wonder that our government today is such a viper’s nest of corruption when our primary education is founded on such lies.
Another outrageous, but more consequential lie, was told to me in high school history class – the civil war was not about slavery, but about “state’s rights,” that is, the South tried to secede from the union because they wanted greater state’s rights (less federal power). And I went to high school in the north! I later learned that the civil war was definitely about slavery and the southern states were pissed about the northern states not enforcing the [federal] fugitive slave laws and returning all their escaped saves. For the Union (the North), the civil war may not have been strictly about slavery in the beginning (more about retaining power), but fo the South, it most definitely was. The whole state’s rights thing is “Lost Cause” mythology.
You can do your own research to verify these claims, but here are some links:
1. The Moral Washington: Construction of a Legend
2. Myth conceptions about the cause of the Civil War
The question is, if they lied to us about this (and the “weapons of mass destruction”), then what else? Maybe we need some better critical thinking in this country.
A few related points…
1. Quick lie detector test: ask yourself if the person/group telling you the “fact” has anything to gain by lying – the more they have to gain, the more likely that they are lying (not that they definitely are, but probably they are).
2. Maybe we should stop being deceptive every day (such as with the proliferous greeting type questions such as “How are you?” where no more than a spurious and quick response is expected, or sometimes no response is even waited for – both parties are complicit in these daily rounds of fake socialization). We don’t have to reveal all our deepest secrets to acquaintances, but can’t we be a little more genuine?
3. I’m tired of naïve liberals with bumper stickers like “War is NOT the answer” – do these people truly not realize that war is quite profitable (for key people in power + their friends like Halliburton and their no-bid contracts)? All the elaborate “justifications” for war are just lies – it’s not like the war hawks (not the ones in power, anyway) actually believe their own hype. Stop arguing the fake questions and spend your energy on something more fruitful.
4. Science – my favorite one. Non-religious people tend to see Science as a god, but really, it’s just as flawed as any other human institution. If a “new” scientific study purports to “prove” a socially popular belief (for instance that behavioral stereotypes for women result from brain chemistry, a la “The Female Brain”), it is highly suspect. Why? Because when people want to believe something, they’re less likely to question it and appealing to the masses is most rewarding (financially and I’m sure in other ways). Also, as I mentioned before, people see science as godlike, instead of realizing that human scientists almost always have their own expectations before beginning any type of experiment or research and these expectations tend to yield results. The same is true of un-popular science of course, but the benefit of unpopular science is that it gets a much more rigorous questioning from the mainstream media. Some science is great, but not all science is true.
And a few other irksome lies or “common sense”:
A. “There are no human hermaphrodites” (emphatically stated by my high school biology teacher). In fact, 1 in 1000 human babies are born intersex in some regard and some of these (not many, but some) are true hermaphrodites. I’ve even met one.
B. “Milk does a body good.” That’s not a fact – that’s an advertisement, by the dairy industry. Get with the program, people! Note: many people are lactose-intolerant (especially folks of Asian or African descent) and they may not even realize it. Consuming dairy when you’re lactose-intolerant (even if mildly) can cause a myriad of health problems.