Turtles all the way down, of course…

Novel Prize-winning physicist Stephen Hawking starts A Brief History Of Time with an anecdote. During a public lecture on the physics of the earth, the solar system and the galaxy, a young scientist is confronted by a little old lady after the lecture. “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise,” she tells him. The scientist asks, “Ah, and what is the tortoise standing on?” The woman replies, “You’re very clever, young man, very clever, but it’s turtles all the way down.”

We can learn a lot about a person’s character from the underlying principles. The positivist versus the hermeneutic approach:

This comparison also reveals a difference between the positivist and interpretive, or hermeneutic approach to the interpretation of myths. Positivists read myths literally and find them false and foolish; interpretivists read them metaphorically or allegorically and find them true and profound.

Tom Chartier’s bit on dog food is more direct. We are being lied to and it’s built right into our culture. We expect it. Everything from advertising, packaging, FOX news broadcasts and — alas, yes, even the newspaper — have become part of the illusion. The only sources I feel I can turn to regarding matters that matter are not domestic (the BBC for example), although fortunately the Wall Street Journal looks to be holding out as one of the few bastions of integrity our country has left.

It’s an attitude, a cultural phenomenon, that creeps in everywhere — from the message our leaders feed us about national policy all the way down to our entertainment industry. Consider Martha Ture’s piece on The Core, a ridiculous movie that teaches all the wrong things:

In The Core, the inference to be drawn is that wise, powerful humans saved humanity and the planet from a doom imposed by an unresponsive natural force. An appropriate response to the wise, powerful humans is awe and honor, and a reassurance that whatever we do to damage the clockwork of the world, we can fix it. The lesson to be learned is it’s okay to destroy ecosystems or cause global warming because we have scientists who can fix it.

Turtles all the way down, friends.

Wouldn’t it be exciting if Hollywood actually put a little bit of thought into these mass entertainment blockbusters? Maybe make them credible at least? Is it too much to ask that we could have a few exciting, blockbuster movies that actually have uplifting, thoughtful stories behind them?

Up here on Turtle Island, we’re riding along on the earth’s crust, that rides on the earth’s mantle, that rides on the sea of molten iron. Turtle on the Sea is an apt metaphor for the planet’s morphology. Setting off bombs to save the world is an apt metaphor for the Bush Administration’s world view. It’s one of those fairy tales that’s turtles all the way down.

I think I appreciate Richard Cummings’ new Flat Earth Society credo, as seen in the light of today’s “turtles all the way down” mentality. Dead on.