Skeptic’s Mundi

I once saw a man speak eloquently---
He said electricity were like a chain
Where the electrons vibrated back and forth
Which were stimulated by the electromagnetic
Force surrounding the entire chain.

My best friend explained magnetism
To me, like a magnet's field
Were something of a solid object.
Which, occupying space
Would push or pull like a metal rod.

Also, a thousand light year chain
If taut, and no resistance,
Being moved would move the whole
Thousand light year chain.
The whole thing would move,
All thousand light years of it.
Just like the cosmos expanding
Causes objects to move at speeds
Faster than light---does this make sense?

Therefore, this man implanted an idea in me
To which expressing his views, he reneged.
For, electrons flow through the wire like water---
So therefore, my entire idea was moot.
Was he wrong? I don't know.
I have not instruments to observe electrons
Flowing through a wire.
Only, that if his principle were right about electrons,
Then no matter how far away something were
From a power source, it ought to feed power immediately
To an object at any distance---
Assuming the electrical field were taut.

Or, maybe my first assumption of electricity was right
That electrons just move through wires like a river;
And therefore, the entire idea were moot.
I had watched inception yesterday,
And the pinwheel incepted in the young Fischer was a bad concept.
I hope to not have incepted in me a bad concept---
Though, it is our freedom we enjoy to be wrong;
Let blood be spilt if anyone ever tried to steal that from us.
So like this man, I will change my mind if the evidence appears.
But, I know nothing of electricity---only what I have heard said about it.
And what he originally said, it seems my premise ought to be correct.

Yet, this is a skeptic's world;
So much so that basic science is doubted.
A thousand scathing critics bite him---
They were not paid.
They were not hired.
They were not actors.
Rather, to destroy beautiful concepts
Was all they set out to do.
And frankly, the breadth of this wise man's
Knowledge seems to be more lucid
Than their ranting tirades.
Thus, I believe him, though he might have gotten this one thing wrong.
It led me down a rabbit hole, which led me to an interesting thought.

To be completely honest,
It wouldn't surprise me at all
To think we understood it better in the 50s.
We had a lot of things better understood then,
Including Psychology.

Yet, things either are or they aren't.
That's the main principle of science;
But the principle of freedom is that we have a right to be wrong;
As, how could knowledge ever be pursued without that freedom?
Also, how ought progress be sustained without the risk of failure?
And if every risk in science were met by a thousand dissenting voices
Silencing what might be the actual truth, I find that serious
And the beginnings of a dark age.