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The folks who slyly and subtly distort history

THE philosopher George Santayana famously observed: “Those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” They are words so wise they should be tattooed on the forehead of every aspiring politician.

And it would certainly do no harm to tattoo them on the foreheads of every journalist, opinion maker, and movie director. They, after all, are the politicians’ primary enablers when it comes to ignoring the lessons of history.

Indeed, television and the movies, aided and abetted by newspapers and magazines—slyly, subtly and with malice of forethought—reshape and remold our perception of historic events, even those we have lived through.

The Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, and Vietnam War—not to mention the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—were by no means entirely as presented to us in movies, TV documentaries, and on the nightly news.

One might, of course, argue that they are subject to sufficient public discussion to counter the misinformation that abounds.

But that corrective is notable by its absence when it comes to general perceptions of less cataclysmic, but no less profound, issues that have framed the debates surrounding such issue as educational and social policies.

Take, for example, the famous Scopes “Monkey Trial”—the event that, above all others, led to evolutionists gaining the upper hand in the on-going debate with creationists.

The stage play/movie Inherit the Wind was the vehicle primarily responsible for molding public perceptions about the Scopes trial. But, in fact, it grossly distorts the circumstances in which the trial took place, the characters of the main protagonists, and the nature of the arguments presented.

For example, it represents Scopes as a young high school science teacher arrested and jailed for illegally teaching Darwin’s theory. And it portrays the townsfolk in the small Tennessee community in which the trial took place as fundamentalist bigots, eager to do violence to Scopes and his defense attorney.

But, in reality, Scopes was never arrested or jailed: He volunteered to go on trial after responding to an American Civil Liberties Union advertisement seeking someone willing to challenge the law.

Far from being threatened, he and his attorney—as well as the whole prosecution team—were feted by the townsfolk, who hoped the trial would put their community “on the map.”

Nor was Scopes fired from his school teaching post after his conviction. In fact, he quit his job to take up the offer of a graduate school scholarship in geology at the University of Chicago.

It was a handsome reward for a small town math teacher and athletic coach who couldn’t be called to the witness stand because he wasn’t able to remember whether he had taught evolution or not.

Truth to tell, Inherit the Wind tells us far more about the mindset of its authors, producers, and promoters than the Scopes trial itself.

They are folks who excoriate dogmatism and demand open mindedness, while vilifying their opponents, falsifying reality, and distorting history in order to advance agendas that enjoy little public support.

Now where have I heard that before? GPH✠

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