ABSTRACT
On May 24, 1869, the Union Pacific telegraph—the Internet of its day—wired that Major John Wesley Powell, head of the Rocky Mountain Scientific Exploration, had unmoored his boats at the Green River to begin an historic descent down the Grand Canyon via the Colorado River. John Risdon, parlayed a story that he was the sole survivor of Powell's expedition which had been lost in the early rapids of the Green River. Risdon traveled to Springfield where he met with the Governor of Illinois, the state having financed Powell's excursion. Developed societies define various ways to determine truth, science becoming primary,5 although its remit has been limited by other methods. An open society, typified by liberal developed nations, provides for pluralism in establishing truth, which becomes the basis of knowledge in all its historical and current complexity. Covid-19 offered ample fuel for conspiracy theories, providing the backdrop for a president eager to inflate his importance as a chief executive.
