I have never been able to forgive Disney since their 1958 wildlife documentary “White Wilderness” was debunked.
In the 1950’s people were perhaps even more gullible than today in believing just about everything presented to them. And like just about everybody else in the western world I unquestioningly accepted the myth of lemmings over a cliff.
But, in fact, a few dozen captive animals were deliberately herded towards the precipice and trick photography was used to give the appearance of a gargantuan scale of leaps to the death.
Not so much a case of mass suicide but rather one of downright mass deception and animal cruelty.
And there are so many examples of society being hoodwinked by those driven by the profit motive. Again in the 1950’s, the major American tobacco companies collaborated in a huge advertising campaign with the headline, “A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers.” In it they stated, “We believe the products we make are not injurious to health.” Nowadays the greatest growth in smoking is in low and middle income countries. It seems that it is always the poorest who suffer the most.
We vegans can see a multitude of myths being perpetuated though usually rather more subtly than in the examples above. How many of these did you used to believe?
You need meat for protein.
You need cow’s milk for calcium.
You need fish for brain power.
You need egg-white to make a decent cake…………….
Roger.
In the 1950’s people were perhaps even more gullible than today in believing just about everything presented to them. And like just about everybody else in the western world I unquestioningly accepted the myth of lemmings over a cliff.
But, in fact, a few dozen captive animals were deliberately herded towards the precipice and trick photography was used to give the appearance of a gargantuan scale of leaps to the death.
Not so much a case of mass suicide but rather one of downright mass deception and animal cruelty.
And there are so many examples of society being hoodwinked by those driven by the profit motive. Again in the 1950’s, the major American tobacco companies collaborated in a huge advertising campaign with the headline, “A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers.” In it they stated, “We believe the products we make are not injurious to health.” Nowadays the greatest growth in smoking is in low and middle income countries. It seems that it is always the poorest who suffer the most.
We vegans can see a multitude of myths being perpetuated though usually rather more subtly than in the examples above. How many of these did you used to believe?
You need meat for protein.
You need cow’s milk for calcium.
You need fish for brain power.
You need egg-white to make a decent cake…………….
Roger.
