Canard Cuisine
What is it about the otherwise rational and wonderful French culture that drives their love of conspiracy theories? The French obsession with canards obviously goes beyond cooking! Although I admit that I love the French and their culture, I am especially perplexed by the moon hoax and NASA-obsessed wackos.
Alas, reliance on pseudoscience, mysticism, conspiracy theories, and other anti-Enlightenment lines of thought will always captivate a certain segment of any population. Moreover, as the sometimes very clever exploits of the Yes Men continue to prove, the tentacles of irrationality and gullibility can work past the social safety nets (e.g., the usual safeguards provided by education, opportunity, etc.). Aaron Sorkin once wonderfully summed it all up by writing a line for a Studio 60 character who said something like, “We now live in a nightmare world that if it were a film, would be titled The Revenge of the Hacks!”
Not only are the conspiracy theories absurd, they are also insulting to the tens of thousands of men and women who devoted (and sometimes sacrificed) their lives in the exploration of space.
Cheers,
Lee
Bonnieux, France
April, 2010
