Here Be Dragons

Here Be Dragons:Truth & Speculation A Humourous Look!

While human nature may hate to admit it,prying into other peoples lives & business, is one of the more disagreeable aspects of our nature..People love to speculate..Media use speculation,& innuendo, as a way to sell their particular story,Facts are replaced by carefully worded (To avoid litigation) "Articles"
Here Be Dragons
The title of this piece,As i will explain,refers to the medieval era,when cartographers wern’t sure how Continents were shaped,or how big an Oceans expanse,So to cover up their ignorance of unexplored territory or Sea,they wrote on the map "Here Be Dragons!" or Sea Monsters of some kind,Which led in turn to superstitious forklore,derived from pure speculation. So in this article,we will take a look at stories of Speculation,Fact, & pure Fiction,passed off as either...
In The Beginning..
People as mentioned, are voyeuristic,they have always been that way,On the surface,they pretend to take the moral high ground of "Oh i hate gossip & pettiness" But deep down, they ALL get curious,If they wern’t there wouldn’t be so many spies or secret service agencies around the world ,would there??🙂 Some Examples From the earliest times,speculation,has almost led to wars,marrage breakups,business partnerships broken up,Family feuds,fighting neighbours,the list is endless,not because of what WAS,but what MIGHT BE!..Paranoid reigned supreme!🙂
Rasputin
The so- called "Mad Monk" while being debauched,was speculated to be the lover of the Russian Tzarina Alexandra,even though,there wasn’t a shred of evidence,to prove it..But people believed the speculation,and so Rasputin ended up being murdered, "Murder by speculation!" Fact wise,if he was guilty of anything,it meddling in affairs of state during WW1,But as the Tzarinas Lover,nothing provable..
Prester John
During the crusades,A legend of a mighty Christian Emperor in the far east,gave speculative hope for the Crusaders,"Prester John",at the head of a vast army,was contemplating marching to their deliverance and the day saved..! Alas "Prester John" again a figment of speculation,never existed,probably confused with the Mongol Emperors of China..But in those days,people believed there was a "Prester John!" 😳...
The Celtic God Pan.
Pan was the Celtic pagen God of the forest,he is depicted as having goats horns,a pointy goats beard, & cloven hoofs in two legs! For the Christian Church of the time,this was too good an opportunity to waste..So the scared the primative uneducated peasants of the time into behaving by portraying Pan as. SATEN!..Even today, the mindset of Saten in many places,still conjours up the image of horns,pointy beard,cloven hooves! No..not Saten,or Lucifer, but the image of old PAN! But the scare tactic worked,..and the peasants "speculated" about Lucifer..& his horns ect!
Speculation And Its Children
From what has gone before,wild,as some of it was,Today "Speculation" has "metamorphed" Into the modern "Conspiracy Theory" Theres money & a market out there for this type of speculation! Some of it may have a degree of credibility,some are totally rediculous & laughable..But we end on a word of caution..Sometimes truth...is far more fantastic,or shocking. than the speculation..But thats for people to research & find out..🙂
Ivan