In the 16th century, there was no Flat Earth Society because almost everyone in the world, except Galileo and colleagues, was a Flat Earther. So, in the cosmic belief system, Flat Earth was the default value. Fortunately, times changed, and the pendulum eventually swung the other way. Even though it is difficult for people today to agree on anything, most of us believe that the world is a sphere. Incredibly, even Donald Trump and Joe Biden seem to agree on this point.
Nevertheless, there has always been a dissenting faction. The International Flat Earth Society (IFES) was born in 19th century England. Its founder was Samuel Rowbotham (1816–1884), who claimed that Earth was a flat disc centered at the North Pole and bounded along its southern edge by a wall of ice, Antarctica. Even though Rowbotham died (as all of us must), his ideas have lived on. From England, the headquarters of the Flat Earth Society eventually migrated to California (where else?), and at one time, had as many as 3500 members.
Finally, the IFES found its niche on Internet, where it flourishes today in vivid proof that the human race has progressed very little since the 16th century. In fact, belief in flat Earth has become a creed, which has even garnered its heroes and martyrs. The most illustrious flat-Earth martyr is Mike Hughes, who was killed on 22 February 2020 while piloting a home-built steam-powered rocket in an attempt to prove his firmly entrenched belief in terrestrial flatness. (He had survived the crash of a previous experiment.) However on his second try, the rocket impacted on the Earth’s (flat) surface after falling from an altitude of several hundred feet. Not surprisingly, Mr. Hughes was killed instantly.
Now in Times of Coronavirus, flat Earth has once again come into the spotlight. Thanks to metaphorical extension, the term now refers to any sort of fringe belief or conspiracy, such as the assertion that 5-G telephone networks spread Covid-19, or that the coronavirus is a gigantic hoax invented by the government to control the population.
In various places in Spain, there have been protests against wearing masks as well as restrictions on nightlife, large gatherings, and smoking in public. Covid-19 has put a serious damper on Spanish social life, and many of Spain’s inhabitants are going into a decline. In Madrid (not the city of the same name in Iowa), there was recently an anti-mask protest of about 3000 people, who claimed, inter alia, that the coronavirus pandemic was fake news and merely a cover for a plan by Bill Gates to implant trackable microchips in everyone.
Even more recently, there have been other protests in Germany, France, and England against coronavirus restrictions implemented by national governments to stem the rising number of contagions in what appears to be a second wave. My sole comfort is that I personally do not know anyone in Spain or in other European countries, who is a Flat Earther (though they doubtlessly exist). In contrast, I do have various acquaintances in the USA, who rejoice in this belief or at least in its metaphorical extension.
This is hardly surprising. One rather expects people to protest masks and social distancing in places like South Dakota, Wyoming, and the White House. However, I am disappointed because I had expected a little more intelligence from people here on the other side of the ocean. But no, in today’s world, it is an inalienable truth that stupidity is exponentially contagious.
