The Sunday Feed
Landing on the moon: Fact or Fiction
Persuasion they say can use one or more principles listed below:
1. Psychology: How the humans think
2. Logic: The Evidence
3. Rhetoric: The Essay
Most people can be categorised as having 2 major dominant traits from the above. You can take a guess as to which are the 2 overriding ones in you.
Recently, I saw a debate between 2 people where an astronaut was vouching for the fact that Neil Armstrong and his team did land on the moon, while the other, an engineer was not so convinced that the event was true. According to him, there are several holes in the event. So let’s take a closer look at why the engineer was challenging the astronaut.
Conspiracy theory 1: The pictures are backlit
a. The engineer argues that the pictures were too perfect to be taken by someone on a mission to the moon to which the astronaut said that there were many picture taken and only the best were shared. So where are the bad one?
b. There was too much light to which the astronaut said that the landing was during the day and also, there is light from the other sources.
Conspiracy theory 2: Where are the stars?
a. The engineer argued that why are three no stars in the background to which the astronaut countered by saying that the cameras were programmed to take pictures of the astronaut and not the background. Sounds funny! You can travel to that length but your camera cannot capture things in the background.
b. The astronaut also claimed that the landing was during the day so the stars were not visible
Conspiracy theory 3: Multiple shadows
a. The astronaut argued that there were multiple sources of light so there were multiple shadows
b. The engineer said that the stage was backlit and so the multiple shadows
Conspiracy theory 4: No blast
a. The engineer said that there was no blast when Apollo landed on the moon which is impossible
b. The astronaut sad that it created an impact of just 1.5 pound per square inch and so no dust displacement
Conspiracy theory 5: Flag Ripples
a. The engineer argued that there is no atmosphere on the moon so why the ripples in the flag
b. The astronaut argues that there are rogue winds on the moon
Conspiracy theory 6: Bogus moon Rock
a. The engineer was shown the moon rock vouched by a meteorologist. However, he believed that it was manufactured in the lab.
b. The astronaut had nothing to say but agree with the meteorologist. Lets not forget the USSR had moon landers as early as 1966. Could US have acquired the formula.
Now let’s understand the motive behind all this. It was a time when USA and USSR were trying to prove to the world that one was better the other. Landing on the moon was a reality show that was telecasted live to millions of people in the US and all across the world.
More importantly, we can see a first hand proof of how US used the 3 principles of persuasion to its advantage.
1. Psychology: They managed to grab the number one spot in the world and proclaimed themselves as a super power by defeating Russia in the chase. People always believe what they want to believe. They wanted to believe that US could do it and so US just had to put up a show.
2. Logic: NASA knew from the start that they had to fabricate evidence to support the event and they did it. The only problem was everything was way too perfect like a perfect murder. The other thing that helped them was that mass media vehicle, the TV through which the event was communicated. The pictures, the flag, the rock, the lander — all seem too good to be challenged.
3. Rhetoric: When you lack substance, create a huge show. It will fill the void. In 1969, English was the most popular language and most people who were in the media spoke English. It would have been difficult for Russia to convince people otherwise in Russian and even if they did, people would still want to believe the US due to better rhetoric. After all, the event was broadcast live to millions of people in the US and across the world.
The idea behind writing this is to prove that if you want to sell something, it will become easier if you use the 3 principles to make your case very strong. How much did the US economy gain by the event is difficult to estimate in isolation but I bet it would have had a great impact. This is the biggest pitch in history.
As far as landing on the moon goes, nothing seemed convincing to me. I can be a logical person when I need to and in this case, all the conspiracy theories seemed much more believable. I might be wrong but sometimes, it is hard to convince yourself when the evidence has hundreds of holes in it.
US had the greatest fatalities from Covid-19. If at all they had applied simple logic to create a plan to fight the virus right at the start rather than believe that Americans are superior to other people, many more Americans would still be alive. Also, psychologically, Americans are much more emotional and believe the politician without raising any questions. Many believed Covid-19 was a hoax because the president told them just like he said that the election was stolen from him.
Lastly, rhetoric cannot make something right or wrong. It just changes the perspective of seeing a thing. In common parlance, we call it framing. If you want to make a person happy tell him or her that there are others who are having a much worse time. Or, if you want to make them sad show them those that are much better of.
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