The Earth is flat

That's how we see it from day to day; precious little inkling do we have trudging the pavements or the footpaths that we stand upon a globe. Yet the earth is round, of course it is. The ancient Greeks knew that (from the top of the Colossus of Rhodes an observer could see a vessel out at sea whilst an observer at ground level, 108m below, couldn't). And the differing lengths of shadow at noon and day-lengths at different latitudes easily confirm this.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, a small yet ever-growing minority of human beings obstinately cling to the belief that that the world is flat. Flat because in their worldview, devoid of external evidence, without the necessary curiosity, they refuse to have foisted upon them something others wish them to believe. And every piece of evidence provided to them to prove the earth is spherical is nothing less than the product of a conspiracy.

Samuel Birley Rowbotham (1816-84), the founder of flat-earthism in the modern era, proved how by shouting loud enough and long enough, you can persuade many people with poorly-honed critical faculties to swallow pseudoscientific hokum. Rowbotham wrote a book, 430 pages long, filled with the results of poorly-designed or spurious experiments, Zetetic Astronomy, Earth not a Globe. Unless you are learned enough, and patient enough, to wade through it all and and compare it to mainstream scientific treatises, you might end up convinced that yes, Rowbotham was clearly an expert and had made enough good points to be taken seriously.

Below: were the circumference of the earth no more than 30 miles, Rowbotham's experiment might have proved something else...

It's six miles from Welches Dam to Welney Bridge on the Bedford Levels. Both still there if you want to try this for yourself...

Above all, Rowbotham was not a quitter. At first, his public-speaking engagements would end in him being roundly dismissed. Yet he was tenacious, determined. And people like tenacity. With time, "his quick-wittedness and debating skills were honed so much that he could counter every argument with ingenuity, wit and consummate skill." He'd fill halls with people willing to part with sixpence - around £12 or 60zł in modern terms) to hear him speak. This lovely quote from the Leeds Times about Rowbotham resonates clearly in our times: "He demonstrated that scientific dabblers unused to platform advocacy are unable to cope with a man, a charlatan if you will (but clever and thoroughly up in his theory), thoroughly alive to the weakness of his opponents".

After Rowbotham's death, the torch of flat-earthism was taken up by Lady Elizabeth Blount, who added the element of Biblical literalism to the theory. This thread - the battle between the literal interpretation of the Bible and science continues to this day.

Flat-earthers have taken to YouTube and the social media in a big way - it is an excellent channel for propagating the most fantastical of theories (NASA was created to propagate lies on behalf of the Illuminati). I won't put any links here, so as not to encourage them. The internet was made for flat-earthers and other conspiracy pedlars. It saddens me to watch flat-earthers speaking out with such vehemence against that which we know to be fact. They don't trust observations made by others, cannot offer a coherent counter-proposal and often distrust or disagree with each other. There's a right model (the earth is a sphere, orbiting the sun) and countless wrong models (a disc with a waterfall at the edge, a wall of ice at the edge, the stars are 700 miles above us, etc).

The parallels with Brexit are clear. An economic model that works is being rejected 'because'. Because the 21st century's equivalents of Samuel Birley Rowbotham have deemed that the EU is a 'doomed project', that Juncker is a drunk, that Britain can do better trade deals with the rest of the world alone than as a member of the world's wealthiest trading bloc, etc etc et bloody cetera.

The Earth is flat because I can't see how it's round. We can leave the EU because I can't see in my day-to-day existence in rural Derbyshire (or wherever) how the EU has improved life.

To all the latter-day Rowbothams can be added those who see the EU as an obstacle to them making their next tax-free billion and to an evil foreign power wishing to break up the EU because it empowered the former vassals of Moscow to prosper in freedom and security.

If you honestly believe the UK will be better off outside the EU, you are probably suffering from other delusions such as climate change is a hoax or that the Earth is indeed flat.

By the way - I love the illustrations from Rowbotham's book. All royalty-free, a good source of whacky Victorian artwork!

This time last year:
50th Anniversary of the Fiat 125p

This time two years ago:
Fidel Castro's death divides the world

This time three years ago:
London to Edinburgh by night bus

This time five year ago:
The Regent's Canal, London

This time seven years ago:
An end to the entitlement way of thinking

This time eight year:
West Ealing - drab and sad suburb

This time nine years ago:
To Poznań by train

This time 11 years ago:
Late autumn drive-time