I was recently informed of a new movement arising – or, rather, the resurgence of an old idea: that the Sun orbits the Earth. In the sixteenth century, Galileo Galilei raised the ire of the Catholic church by suggesting the inverse, and today it is considered a matter of simple fact that he was right – even among the majority of the most staunchly devout Catholics.
Such ideas are akin to those who believe that society should regress to the 1950s, in the mistaken belief that everything was better then. Of course, the 1950s included the rise of the Cold War to the public consciousness, the Korean War, the Suez Crisis, and so on, but these are not the images such lovers of antiquity favour. Rather, they seek to re-establish the power systems that once ruled – in the case of those who would see the Earth return to the centre of the universe, they refer to the power that the Catholic church once held.
Naturally, this is foolish. As much as I sing the praises of cultures of old for their remarkable ingenuity, I do not wish to live in a Mayan society, nor among the Babylonians or Polynesian seafarers. I am always aware that, despite my regard for those times, I am quite comfortable living in a society that, aside from occasional glitches such as this, does seem on a perpetual route towards intellectual enlightenment.
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