“Leave me alone,’ I wept to the Hobo;
“Turn into stone,’ I knelt to the Hobo;
And he walked away from my fleeting house.”
– from Tim Buckley (‘Morning Glory’)
Matthew 24:6 – And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
“Monkey see monkey do. What works for ants can work for you. Be a mirror for your boss, and you can get a head. But if you buck the system, you’ll get a kick instead.“
— Henry Ford
The Universe can be a lonely place. If you’re seeking acceptance, you’re better off looking back to what people already believe, than forward toward any challenging new truth. Consider the very human need to have everything fit an established design:
Early cultures thought the Earth was flat. Eratosthenes developed a theory of the Earth being spherical in the Third Century BCE. It was not until 1520 or so, that Magellan circumnavigated the world, proving the old Greek’s idea correct.
Aristotle and Ptolemy thought the Sun and planets revolved around the Earth. Aristarchus of Samos, sometime around the turn of the Third Century BCE, posited that the planets including the Earth were heliocentric. It was not until Nicolaus Copernicus, revived Aristarchus’ theory in 1543 that it was accepted.
Most new ideas are bitterly contested by adherents to the paradigms they replace. Traditions and religious dogmas cloud the issue, and it’s easier not to try to fight them. New discoveries are often not accepted until their architect is gone. Copernicus said –
“To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” If the field of Science were to embrace a motto, I think that would serve well.
