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Ancient folly survives, too

Ancient wisdom survives.

Over thousands of years, ideas are tested. The filter of time is how we can see truth, because dumb dies and smart survives. Nassim Taleb’s Lindy Principle succinctly describes this idea.

But ancient folly can survive for a long time, too.

It’s easy to look at modern “wisdom” and predict that it will disappear in time. Socialism and communism seem to be examples. The “true Scotsman” fallacy is applied by the proponents of these ideas . . . again and again. Yet the application of these ideas seems to fail . . . again and again. Unfortunately, we live in the testing era, and some of us must suffer from the malignant application of folly. In this regard, it is instructive to watch the proponents of such ideas and discern their true motivations. That insight will tell you why the ideas of socialism and communism must fail. The fundamental motivation is at odds with the objective.

But that’s an aside. The basic point is that modern fallacies persist, sometimes for a long time. Eventually, however, bad ideas die, along with their disciples.

And if modern fallacies persist for a few hundred years before they fall prey to the filter of time, why should not other bad ideas last even longer? A thousand years? Sure. That’s possible.

Do not mistake an idea’s longevity for truth. It’s a good marker, but it isn’t definitive.