Porcupines Can Shoot Their Quills And 5 Other Lies That Are Beneficial To Believe
Porcupines Can Shoot Their Quills And 5 Other Lies That Are Beneficial To Believe
Many of us believe the porcupines can shoot their quills. They can’t. Honestly. Here’s a Nat Geo link if you’re still in doubt.
I have to stress it so firmly because this is such an embedded truth. You hear someone else that believes it, it solidifies your position even further. So many believe it to be true that it gets stickier and harder to remove.
…much like porcupine quills themselves which are a nasty proposition. They have a barb on the end to help them attach firmly to whatever they enter.
As such, isn’t it an unequivocally good thing to believe the lie? It keeps us away from these animals and drastically reduces our chances of ever being ‘quilled’.
I heard on a podcast recently about a chap that argued hard in favor of the shooting theory with his proof point being that on a walk his dog went off out of sight and returned with porcupine quills in his nose.
Of course, dogs haven’t been subjected to human porcupine propaganda and, as such, the canine in question probably went up and stuck his snout in one. Point proven.
From Plato’s Republic:
“….could we… somehow construe one of those lies that come into being in the case of need … some noble lie, to persuade, in the best case, even the rulers, but if not them, the rest of the city?”
Let’s do some more myth-busting before we get onto my favorite:
Lie: A coin dropped from a tall building would kill someone if it hit them.
Fact: The terminal velocity of a coin is 30-50mph. It would surely sting a bit, but not kill
Outcome: People don’t throw coins off buildings, nobody gets hurt.
Lie: A mother bird will abandon her babies if a human touches them.
Fact: Birds have extremely limited sense of smell.
Outcome: People don’t rummage around disrupting bird nests.
Lie: You lose most of your body heat through your head.
Fact: Heat loss is proportional to surface area, so you lose about 10% of your body heat through your heat.
Outcome: People wear hats in cold weather, an area of the body that otherwise is typically left uncovered.
Lie: Einstein failed math at school
Fact: He did once fail a school entrance exam but he excelled at math throughout his academic career
Outcome: People feel better about their own failures
Now, onto the one that was the most mind-bending for me…
LIE: The Future Is Predictable
Each day we encounter many people predicting the future:
Weather apps telling us when it’s going to rain.
Economists telling us when a recession is on the horizon.
Pollsters telling us who is going to win elections.
Realtors telling us house prices are due for a big change.
It’s comforting to think that life is predictable, that us human beings are masters of our circumstances. It’s just not true, however.
Fact: The world, our civilization and the events within are highly unpredictable.
The examples above have many cases of right as well as wrong (although it’s worth noting that not one economist predict the Great Depression) so instead, let’s look at some major happenings in history.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand - his assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia which snowballed into WW1
During the revolutionary war, George Washington was at one point surrounded by the British, who simply needed to sail up the east river and capture him. That night, the wind changed preventing this and he was able to escape.
A high-ranking Politburo (communist party) member, Gunter Schabowski, changed world history simply by panicking at a press conference and inadvertently declaring the Berlin Wall was coming down - this was not the intention at all.
Indian solider Mangal Pandey botched an assassination attempt. His resultant death penalty kick-started the Indian Freedom Movement which liberated India.
Vasili Arkhipov, commander of an entire Russian submarine flotilla, just happened to be aboard a sub where the Captain was ready to launch nukes in response to what were US practice depth charges in international waters. Arkhipov was able to over-rule the choice and prevented WW3.
History has always been entirely unpredictable and has often change course significantly due to seemingly insignificant actions.
So, if we accept that history was unpredictable, how can we suggest that the future is any different?
How many small insignificant actions happen each day? Who is to to say what tragedies could have been averted today, or what huge event might be lurking around the corner?
Of course, it’s entirely untenable to live life thinking that way - how could we possibly ever enjoy ourselves?
So let’s forget I mentioned anything, wrap ourselves back up in the comfortable lies that are there to serve us. And remember, stay away from porcupines.
Cheers,
Graeme