Like Carrots Information is Perishable
Propaganda, Memory and Wisdom
Growing up my mother always told me to eat my carrots. They were “good for your eyes,” she would say. She was lying, sort of.
Carrots are rich in Vitamin A, which helps maintain the cornea, the outside covering of the eye. But the origin of my mother’s advice derived from wartime propaganda not scientific study.
At the beginning of World War Two the British had a big secret. They possessed technology that could see things the eye couldn’t. It could see in the dark. This wasn’t wizardry, but something common, now. This was radar.
By 1939 the British had managed to install the tech on aircraft. Then in November of 1940 the RAF scored its first nighttime, air to air, kill. Squadron leader John “Cat’s Eyes” Cunningham shot down a German bomber. He would achieve 20 kills by war’s end and 19 of them were at night.
The British government promoted Cunningham’s success, posters portrayed him as some sort of superhero attributing his nighttime prowess to a diet heavy in carrots. The myth took hold and children of that war, like my mother, grew up to believe and repeat the the lie.
Have you ever been admonished to wear a hat in the cold of winter because heat escapes the body more rapidly via the head? The US Army field manual once stated that almost half of your body heat could be lost via the head. This is not true.
It’s believed this myth is born of 1950s era experiments with the first thermal cameras. Subjects were placed in front of the camera, well dressed except for the head. The camera captured the images of heat escaping from parts of the body that weren’t covered.
An experiment in 2006 tested this old tale and found the true percentage of heat lost via the top of you to be around seven percent. This science came to late for some. Those of us who got in trouble for not wearing a hat in the cold paid the price.
I worked on a TV program about the American use of submarines during World War Two. While interviewing a few veterans I asked about shore leave and what people did. One former seaman recounted being in Hawaii and heading to the “pro-shop.” I interjected, “did you play a lot of golf?”
I can see the confused look on the man’s face. I can’t recall exactly what he said, but it was something like, “not that sort of pro, Martin.” Your grandparents had sex during World War Two, and not just with each other.
On another show we interviewed a woman who had been a teenager during the Battle of Britain, manning anti-aircraft guns. We asked her about Churchill’s famous, rousing, speeches. Those indelible words we are led to believe everyone loved and loved him for. She was nonplussed, the speeches were fine, “for a Tory.” She was from a different part of the political spectrum and didn’t fancy him much, but she hated the Nazis and nothing brings people together like a common hatred.
The point of all this is that I’ve learned how flawed my memory is. Not just because I don’t remember well, but because the truth changes, is amplified and, flatly, lies and myth are dismissed over time by people willing to seek and consider new information.
Wisdom, is borne of experience, knowledge and the good judgement they provide you. If you don’t seek to keep your mind and what fills it fresh with new experiences and knowledge you can’t claim to be wise.
One last note, double check this stuff, facts change.