Captured Thought: Historical Rumors

I watched a good episode of The Simpsons the other day. It was the one in which Lisa discovers that the man who founded their town, Jebodiah Springfield, was actually a murderous pirate and not the hero he was made out to be. She tries to convince the town about her findings, but everyone is so lost in the story of Springfield. So, in the end everyone still believes Jebodiah to be a hero despite the truth of him being a terrible person.

This made me realize that it is quite possible that fragments of history, that people hold on to and adore, could easily be a lie, covered up by the person/people recording it for the books. I know that most things in history can easily be proven just by all the artifacts left behind (Ex: Mayan civilization, the Civil War), but there are also things that could be made up, just historical rumors. Things like who first landed on the Americas and who first landed on the moon.

It might seem like this is not big deal because it does not change our current status, but it is. It means that everything that is supposed to be true and hold validity, could easily be dismissed as false just because of our ignorance.

Looking back, I notice that I have been thinking about things like this for a year or two. I would always ask myself, as I looked through a history book, "What if this stuff isn't true?" But I would ignore that question because I was convinced that, "Oh, it is in a history book, it must be true." But now I realize that things are not always as they seem.