Truth is the best swindle
And tickets for CLOWNS LIKE ME are now on sale!
I bet you’ve heard this quote before.
In 1859, Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”
I was doing some edits for a client this week, and she used this quote, and like a good editor, I googled it to make sure of wording.
Lo and behold, Darwin didn’t say it!!
This is no indictment of my client. She’s brilliant and one of the hardest-working people I know. The quote is well-known. I also assumed it was Darwin. Almost everyone assumes it is Darwin. There are a million memes out there with cartoon Darwins speaking this quote.
Heck, the California Academy of Sciences even etched it into the stone floor of their headquarters! And attributed it to Darwin! Thankfully, once informed of the truth, they un-etched Darwin’s name. But still.
The actual source of that quote is from an article titled “Lessons from Europe for American Business,” written in 1963 by one Leon C. Megginson, Professor of Management and Marketing at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. And here is what Professor Megginson wrote:
“According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”
Professor Leon C. Megginson, NOT DARWIN
Do you see? Not only is Megginson paraphrasing what he thinks Darwin meant, he is also looking at the idea through a business-colored lens.
Putting aside the shocking fact that not every meme on the internet is true (gasp!), just think about this for a sec. Does the quote still hold water? Is there still some truth etched into that stone floor? What do we take at face value that perhaps we should interrogate?
Basically… what’s the real story here? Who’s telling it? And why? Good ol’ un-attributed Leon wanted to see what happened when tenets of evolutionary biology were applied to business practices.
The story changes based not only on who is telling it, but who they are telling it to.
But does the truth inside that story change?
This idea was very much on my mind this week because my podcast guest, Rod Brogan, worked as a news reporter before becoming a full-time actor. And as you can see from his cover…
… he had an interesting bit of advice to share about truth, as well as insights into how a reporter would record the same story three times because he knew it was going to be aired multiple times throughout the day.
Which version of the story… is most true? Is that even the right question?
All I know is Professor Megginson got screwed out of some good etching.
Here’s something else I know…
Tickets for CLOWNS LIKE ME are now on sale! For both Sarasota and New York!
Next month, we are presenting five “sneak peek” performances of the show we are taking Off-Broadway this summer. So you can see Scott perform his critically acclaimed, award-winning one-man show right here in Sarasota before we pack it up and head north.
If you smash the purple button below, you can grab tickets either for the May 23-26 shows in Sarasota, or for the June 21-August 18 shows in New York.
BONUS! Here’s a fantastic article in BROADWAY WORLD that tells you all about how CLOWNS LIKE ME came to be.
Have a great weekend!
Jason “Should’ve Used an Etch A Sketch” Cannon