...You said something that I think made some sense to me. The difference between factual inaccuracies and myths. If I understand correctly, this is a comparison I need to grasp.
But I think one blends into the other, doesn't it? For example, (and a very common one so I will use it) I often feel the need to defend Ike Clanton. Not because he is a favourite of mine but because he is the scape-goat, it appears, of almost every writer or interested discussion. On this board we constantly read references to Ike as a 'loud-mouthed drunken buffoon who caused the whole gunfight disaster.' (Just a summary of various descriptions of him.)
Yet I have combed and combed line by line all the testimonies I am aware of including newspaper accounts and cannot find anyone at the time describing him that way. Most are simply assumptions. Even the Earps did not describe Ike in that manner in their testimonies and it would have been to their advantage. Their negative comments, for the most part, were quotes from others and we can't know if those quotes ever happened or were manufactured to support the Earp position. Two witnesses were questioned by the Defense regarding their possible drinking or hang-overs and yet neither the Defense or Prosecution saw the need to question Ike on the matter. There is no record that Ike was a drunken loud-mouthed buffoon that started the whole mess with threats other than developing opinions of future writers and Historians.
To cut a long story short, isn't this how factual inaccuracies develop into myths? And then, should there not be an effort to correct this understanding?
that you have difficulty understanding me, but then, as Andre Gide once wrote, "Please, do not understand me too quickly." Maybe you just need more time to mull. The thrust of what was I trying to say,... more
Olds/ mulling continuously... — Joyce A. Aros,Fri Dec 09 2022 6:11
going to be precise and accurate in the way we use the language, to sufficiently answer your questions requires opening the pandora's box (which is itself a myth) of definitions. What, for instance, are... more
...As you probably knew it would, I got bogged down heavily until I got to "Perhaps..." And that is where I am. Trying to establish how and why these inaccuracies developed in the first place!... more
I suspect that it's the words that are having their way with me, but I learned long ago not to fight their flow when they're flowing. Swimming against their tide gets you nowhere fast. It's a dance. They... more
...Thank you for your understanding and encouragement. I feel much better and more likely to accomplish some form of....accomplishment? You are very kind in that you shrank the whole thing down to... more
...that you are enjoying these exchanges so much. Disagreement with patience is how we learn. Somebody has to defend those guys so I guess I will soldier on. Stick around; there are some interesting questions... more