The Big Lie

Naming is powerful. It imputes meaning. Something to be taken with serious consideration. That's rarely the case, of course. Branding. Marketing. The Big Lie. It makes it feel shiny and new like a luxury automobile carrying more cameras and compute power than the Apollo 11 lunar lander, or a pasta maker that's also a juicer, or an ointment that makes you look like you're fourteen years old again. Do those side-by-side photos really look different to you? 

When did people become so resistant to facts? 

Like… Always? I see you, Galileo.

It seems to me that people have never liked facts. Especially facts that threaten an existing power structure. Or a tribal narrative. We humans do not like to change our minds. It's why we're still getting the same haircut and wearing the same style of clothes we wore in high school. We actually think it's a "good look." We're bringing pictures of Jon Bon Jovi, circa "Slippery When Wet" to the hair salon. (I was more Jackson Browne "Late for the Sky" back in the day; I can only aspire to Steve McQueen in "Bullitt" at this point in my life.) We shop on boutique sites that flash "Vintage" in neon on their homepage with a decades widget so you can filter on the decade of your senior year. Do I wish I still had that green paisley shirt with white collar and cuffs and faux pearl snaps? That was my lucky shirt! Of course I wish I still had that shirt!

Dressing like the bass player of a hair metal band with your thinning, graying hair tied in a limp ponytail is one thing; a silly thing. (It's also the reason why you can never think of something to wear to your friend's Halloween party because you're already and always in costume.) Yes, it's a lie but it's not a Big Lie. It doesn't hurt anyone; in fact, it brings joy to all those who meet you. They will find themselves later that day humming "Livin' on a Prayer" with smiles on their faces.

Why can't we find comfort in facts? Perhaps because they are inherently uncomfortable. Real. Immutable. They can prove wrong what you thought was right. Unfortunately, we still have to concern ourselves with those men of god who would happily burn us at the stake for seeing a moon orbit Jupiter through a telescope. The people with newly discovered facts are still, as they always have been, the blasphemers while those clothed in the radiant cloak of lies sit in judgment. And if history can teach us anything, it's that it's far easier to recant the truth than to recant a lie.