Being right is less important than being convincing

The classic example is the sun rotating around the earth. While clearly wrong, it was taught in schools and accepted as dogma for generations. Those who disagreed suffered in life and careers. The instinct and problem is still so human. Even in the beginning of the 21st century, we humans are still humans in our ability to obfuscate the obvious.

The obvious is that we are beginning to have too many humans on planet earth, and the trend lines are not in we humans favor. Rather than offer all the normal arguments and demographics trends for the proposition, just imagine if in 6 generations (about 180 years), what will the numbers and implications be? There are ways that will work and postpone, we hope.

Another obvious is the willingness of humans to play god with mother nature and populations, be they human or animal. The former might be called socialists, and the latter might be called academic game managers. While the intents are always so good and nice, the skills and knowledge are so poor that the law of unintended consequences always pops up to embarrass the sponsors. In this case, the populations suffer, as well as the taxpayer funders for these do-gooders who need our money to do their experiments on us. There are better ways.

Less obvious but closer to our present time of 2008 is treating women as if they are one-half of humanity. Whole civilizations have taught in schools and used dogma to keep women from being one-half of humanity in their influence. Much of this is eastern, these days. Of course women are smart enough to control the world in their own way. The classic argument is the vote, which says much about our human world. This one is still up for grabs, the argument of being right is less important than being convincing. Most will say women control much of humanity, east and west, either way.

And so in America in 2008, being right is also less important than being convincing. Being convincing is mostly about whom we elect to do the most basic things like police and fire security; food, toy, and pet safety; infrastructure safety like safe water and sewage and roads and bridges; and homeland security. Being convincing is also convincing enough people to provide 24/7 electricity, albeit with all the compromises to make it happen.

Being right is tougher. Those who suggest we live more like cavemen and getting “in touch” with our environment have a point in reducing demands on the environment. They think they are “right”, though most of us think they do not live this way. They beg the original question, does the sun rotate around the earth, or is something else going on in 2008?

The answer is obvious to this human. Being right or convincing really doesn’t matter in the greater scheme of things in 2008. Voting is about America, we Americans, and our future Americans. And we can teach our kids that the earth rotates around the sun, and that America and its constitution, and the new world and its western ideas, are the best way for our human world to go forward. One can dress this idea up, but in the end, there are ideas worth fighting for if that is what it takes. And the amount of women stepping up to the fighting plate will be a good hint.