Letters From Grandpa #384

LETTERS FROM GRANDPA

• 384

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will focus on Proverbs 18:17: “The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him”. This letter is a plea to not let dogmatic people bully your thinking. Please patiently wait until all the evidence is in and then make up your own mind.

The following information is condensed from “The 41 Worst Predictions of All Time”.

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“The plans of Christopher Columbus to sail west and find a shorter route to India are impossible” – this was the consensus of a royal committee appointed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1490.

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“Jupiter’s moons are invisible to the naked eye and therefore can have no influence on the earth, and therefore would be useless, and therefore do not exist” – this pronouncement was made by a group of Aristotelian professors in 1610.

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“Gas lighting of British cities will not happen, they may as well try to light London with a slice of the moon” – William H. Wollaston, British chemist and physicist in the early 1800s. •

“What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives traveling twice as fast as stagecoaches” - The Quarterly Review 1825.

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“The abolishment of pain during surgery is a chimera” – Dr. Alfred Velpeau in 1839.

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“I have a strong opinion that the Suez Canal cannot be made” – Anthony Trollope in 1860. •

“Ours has been the first and doubtless will be the last to visit this profitless locality” (The Grand Canyon) – Lt. Joseph C. Ives, U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers in 1861.

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“The purchase of Alaska can give us neither honor, wealth or power, but will always be a source of weakness and expense without any adequate return” – Congressman Orange Ferriss 1868. •

“The abdomen, chest, and brain are sacred and will forever be shut out from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon” – Sir John Erichsen, British surgeon 1873.

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“Edison’s incandescent lamp may be good enough for our transatlantic friends, but is unworthy of the attention of practical and scientific men” – a British Parliament Committee 1878. •

“There is no plea that will justify the use of high-tension alternating currents”– T. Edison 1889. •

“The horseless carriage will never been as plentiful as the bicycle” – Literary Digest 1889. •

“The Panama Canal is a thing of the past and nature will soon obliterate all traces of French energy and money expended on the Isthmus” – Scientific American 1891.

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“I must confess that my imagination refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and floundering at sea” – H. G. Wells 1901.

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“Ariel flight is a problem with which man can never cope”– Simon Newcomb 1903.

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“The actual building of roads for motor cars is not for the near future” – Harper’s Weekly 1902. •

Lee De Forest was prosecuted for fraud for selling stock in his Radio Telephone Company and promising that in the near future the human voice could be transmitted over the Atlantic - 1913. •

“What are the Bolsheviks? They are representative of the most democratic government in Europe . . .Let us recognize the truest democracy in Europe, the truest democracy in the world today” William Randolph Hearst, U.S. newspaper publisher 1918.

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The N.Y. Times on Jan. 13, 1920 criticized professor Robert Goddard for believing that a rocket could operate in outer space. They called this “absurd” and said that Goddard “lacked the knowledge that was ladled out daily in High Schools”. It was 49 years later, July 17, 1969, that they formally retracted their criticism. This was just before Apollo landed on the moon.

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“It is highly unlikely that an airplane, or a fleet of them, could ever successfully sink a fleet of navy vessels under battle conditions”. Assistant Sec. of the navy Franklin D. Roosevelt 1922. •

“Nobody now fears that a Japanese fleet could deal an unexpected blow on our Pacific possessions. . .radio makes surprise impossible” Joseph Daniels Oct. 16, 1922.

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“While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility”. Lee DeForest – the Father of radio – 1926.

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With regard to the repeal of prohibition, Sen. William Borah said in 1926: “I will never see the day when the 18th Amendment is out of the Constitution of the U.S.” It was repealed in 1933. •

“In this column for years, I have constantly labored these points: Hitler’s horoscope is not a war-horoscope”. R. H. Naylor, British astrologer for the London Sunday Express 1939. •

“That is the biggest fool thing we have every done . . . the atomic bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives” Adm. William Leahy to Pres. Truman in 1945.

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Regarding long range rockets Dr. Vannevar Bush, a U.S. engineer, reported to a Senate Committee in 1945 that technically no one knew how to do such a thing and we need to leave it out of our thinking.

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“Landing and moving around on the moon offers so many serious problems for human beings that it may take science another 200 years to lick them”. Science Digest, Aug. 1948.

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“It can be taken for granted that before 1980, ships, aircraft, locomotives, and even automobiles will be atomically fueled”. David Sarnoff, U.S. radio executive and former head of RCA 1955.

These examples could easily be multiplied, but you get the point. The problem today is exacerbated by the cancel culture which someone described as a “medieval mob looking for someone to burn at the stake.” The word “university” literally means “unity in diversity” but diversity is coming to an end in many “universities”. Too often mobs shout down unwanted speakers to avoid diversity. Sadly, universities often cave in to the mob for the cancel culture makes it very expensive to allow diversity. For example, when Anne Coulter spoke at UC Berkeley in 2019 it cost the university $290,000 for her security. The security cost for Ben Shapiro was $800,000. So cancel culture bullies have basically ended “freedom of speech” and “diversity” in many places and in many modes of communication.

So, before caving in to the cancel culture, please remember! “The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him”.

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce