Talk:Gerald Massey
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[edit] COMMON MISQUOTATION OF GERALD MASSEY
A POINT ABOUT MISQUOTATION
Gerald Massey came to my attention via a poignant quotation attributed to him. By searching his published lectures, I've learned this popularly attributed quotation is a misquotation. The following discussion presents the original quotation, the misquotation, a thought about the motive for perpetuating misquotation, a solution to appease all parties, and finally a request for help.
I. ORIGINAL QUOTATION
6. We have heard the language like this of Mr.—— before (put in better English), when anything very upsetting has been presented to the world. Such damnation is dirt cheap! Also, the time has passed for denunciation to be mistaken for disproof. That is the kind of authority I had already counted on, and discounted, when I say, "They must find it hard to take Truth for authority who have so long mistaken Authority for Truth."
Original source: http://gerald-massey.org.uk/massey/epr_09_a_retort.htm
II. MISQUOTATION
There are various forms of misquotation. The most prominent example is found on the website of the conspiracy theory movie called Zeitgeist.
"They must find it difficult...Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority."
Misquotation source: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/
III. MISQUOTATION: MOTIVE
I think part of the reason this misattributed quotation persists is that it's more poignant than the original. The misquotation is more easy for people to appropriate in support of other causes. The other possibility is that what I am calling a misquotation is not misquotation at all. I.e. There is just another source where Massey has in fact said "They must find it difficult...Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority." If any credible source is found for this wording, my comments here are void. That said, I have found no reliable source for the aforementioned phrasing. I propose a solution.
IV. SOLUTION
Perhaps instead of attributing the paraphrase to Massey, we might turn the paraphrase into a saying, name the saying after Massey, thus attributing the spirit of the paraphrase to Massey, without explicitly implying the wording is Massey's. For example,
"They must find it difficult, those who have taken authority for truth, rather than truth as the authority." -Massey's Maxim
Thus, we create a maxim that isn't attributed to Gerald Massey, but which credits him for the spirit of the saying. This is similar to what was done with Sturgeon's Law. That is, an inelegant yet poignant quotation is paraphrased into an elegant and poignant maxim or rule. The paraphrase's spirit, but not its wording, is credited to the original author, because the saying is named after them.
V. REQUEST
I don't have the time or knowledge to properly correct this error on Gerald Massey's wikipedia page. I request that another editor implement the following corrections. (1) Add a note about the popular misquotation of Gerald Massey. (2) Contrast the misquotation with the correct quotation. (3) Link to sources of the correct quotation e.g. http://gerald-massey.org.uk/massey/epr_09_a_retort.htm. Thank you! SandwormDD (talk) 19:19, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
