Flat Earth Conspiracy
Hesiod described our world’s uniform planeas Achilles’ shield afloaton the river Oceanus. A beliefthat stood until Pythagorasobserved the shape of the moon’s terminatorin orbital cycle. And though more than a millenniumof scientific progress has broughtenough space explorationand satellite imaging for Earth’s curvatureto no longer be a questionbut a logo, flattened onlyby mass-produced renderings,there are still some who are looking for any reasonto disprove what’s been proven.The privilege of their disbelief sharpened,brandished likeon countless message boards and forums,those newest, darkest alleys of the cultural zeitgeistwhere we mug only ourselves.Because if the earth were a spinning chunk of rock,a helicopter could hover in place,its pilot waiting for their destination to appearon the skyline. And any bulletfired straight up would land at least a hundred feeteast or west of its origin.But none of this explainswhy some can’t accept even the simplest termsof our shared gravitational experience.Most claims of grand deceptionare a response to a perceived injustice (JFK, aliens,capitalism, etc.). So if the earth is flatit begs a question: who benefits from the lie?Who wants our world to be sphericalrather than some verdant placemat, or giant Petri dishenclosed by walls of ice that keepthe water in and monsters out? It’s always someone.The Illuminati or the Free Masons. Surrogatesfor whatever forces we’re convincedare at work molding our happiness into bricksthat some shadowy usesto wall up its brief windows. But what ifthis time it isn’t them?Instead, what if our injusticeis self-inflicted? Because if the earth is flat,we can’t be confident thatputting one foot in front of the other doesn’tjust move us towards an end.An end that might even be worse thanall those years spent walking.The more artless among us have named this gamble faith.But even a true believer might admitthat by refusing to acceptwhat we haven’t borne witness to,our ignorance is tenuousas any higher power’s charity.At least the tyranny of Pythagoras turns our world,so that we’re forced to face ourselves.We know the truth. We see itcoming on the horizon.
