Max Cryer - Is It True?: The Facts Behind the Things We Have Been Told

Geoffrey Pooch, Emma Sloman, Paul Barrett, Ian Watt, Graeme & Valerie Fisher, Robbie Ancel and Steve Jennings.

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There comes a time, somewhere towards the end of childhood, when concepts previously believed to be true are gradually revealed as illusory. It isnt Santa Claus who brings presents or the tooth fairy who leaves money under your pillow...

But the capacity to believe survives these early reality-checks, and into adulthood many people accept what they have been told without examination. Several generations have been surrounded by advertising claims that beauty creams will banish wrinkles (they wont), that punch-n-grow hair transplanting isnt visible (it is), that a pill will make you slim (it doesnt), and that reality television shows are not contrived (they are).

But its not just advertising. Besides the persuasive glamour that credit-card advertising offers, without ever mentioning the payments required later, the capacity to believe has stayed in place from the time Grandma passed on something shed been told by her grandmother ... and there is a strong fibre in the human DNA to believe whatever explanation one was told first. Alas, Grandma had sometimes been given doubtful information by her own grandmother, and one thing tends to lead to another.

Many people are convinced that the Bible is the origin of Herods stepdaughter Salome dancing with her seven veils, when actually the Bible doesnt give her any name at alland never mentions anything about veils. The worlds pre-eminent rugby trophy is called the William Webb Ellis Cupbut there is no proof that Webb Ellis had anything to do with rugby. Many people have followed what human nature tends to do: they believe what they were told first.

Sometimes a familiar concept gains several widely differing explanations over time, not one of which can be actually proven. Several people will tell you quite different reasons for the origin of, for example: the whole nine yards; how the word cocktail came into use; no room to swing a cat; the behaviour of brass monkeys in the cold; how the word Yankees came about; who was the real McCoy (or was it McKay?). These have multiple explanations, each of which is believed by one group of people and scorned by those who believe one of the other stories.

On another level, there are often concepts and beliefs which somehow have become misbelieved, but the original truth, when brought forward, may prove to be something of a surprise. Evidence shows that King Canute knew perfectly well that he could not command the tide. And when Queen Victorias granddaughter asked her when she had said We are not amused, Her Majesty Grandma replied that shed never said it.

The line can be very wobbly between what we are told, what we believe, and what is the fact. Oscar Wilde wrote of Lady Bracknell: She is a monster without being a myth which is rather unfair! In the hit musical Wizard, author Gregory Maguire has the Wizard of Oz say: The truth isnt a thing of fact, or reason. Its simply what everyone agrees on. That may be fine for a (fictional) Wizard, but not everyone thinks that way.

In 1949, American writer Dorothy M. Johnsons story The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance introduced the character of a newspaper editor whose credo was: If the myth gets bigger than the man, print the myth. For the 1962 movie of Ms Johnsons story, screenwriters James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck adapted her line to: When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

But some of us dont follow that credo. Printing a legend certainly doesnt make it a fact...