You might be confused how movements against good things somehow win out. There are issues in society we generally agree on as conventional wisdom. Then 10-20 years down the road, there’s a powerful antagonistic voice winning over hearts and minds.
Today we’re going to look at one such case to illustrate the phenomenon. Here’s a look at how the anti-lighthouse keeper movement won in America.
Lighthouses are great. They are tourist attractions and are depicted on postcards and flags. But lighthouses are no longer valued in America the way they once were. Lighthouse keepers are a job for the history books, with only a single ceremonial lighthouse keeper remaining in the U.S.
Here are the main reasons provided for the downfall of lighthouse keeper: GPS tracking, better boats, fewer foreign invasions, automated lighthouses and landlocked cities. In Denver, I can think of only one lighthouse near me. It’s in a water park, but no one lives in it anymore. It’s nonfunctional.
Conventional wisdom used to be that lighthouse keepers were symbols of hope. When you saw the light, you knew that someone was watching over the night. The lighthouse keeper was key to the lighthouse. They were keeping us safe from sea monsters and ghosts alike. Anything that might harm in the night was thwarted by the watchful eye of the lighthouse keeper.
It was conventional wisdom that lighthouse keepers provided services far beyond just warning boats that they were about to hit the shore. The problem with conventional wisdom is that people usually don’t spend a lot of time defending it.
Then the anti-lighthouse keeper movement started to attack. At first, no one paid attention. This group spread wild conspiracy theories such as that lighthouses were spy towers for the communists. Lighthouse made you sick. Lighthouse keepers were government agents (a fact because most lighthouses were part of the coast guard).
Everyone ignored these anti-lighthouse groups, but they convinced many newly minted adults to believe their theories. Unfortunately, we often don’t teach kids about conventional wisdom. We don’t teach media literacy or grammar in schools because, since adults know these things, they assume children do too. But kids don’t know.
Someone from the anti-light keeper group would walk into a frat house and say, “Hey, do you know about the lighthouse conspiracy?” Kids like Flounder from Arizona didn’t know anything about lighthouse keepers. The only lighthouse he knows is a senior special buffet.
Flounder hears that lighthouses are a government conspiracy, and he immediately tries to get them all torn down. He’s instantly an evangelist to rid the country of the lighthouse keeper—keepers of the devil’s light!
Someone more intelligent than Flounder might be willing to look for information. But when the nerds go online, the only people talking a lot about lighthouses are the anti-lighthouse keeper movement. There’s no pro-lighthouse keeper movement because we didn’t know we needed one.
The destruction of Lighthouses happened before the Internet. So Maine didn’t know about the anti-lighthouse keeper movement in Chicago and vice versa. The message softened, so everyday citizens thought it was just a way to save money. Then one day, we wake up, and all the lighthouses are automated, and lighthouse keepers are a relic similar to Revolutionary War muskets.
If you see parallels between this parable and modern phenomena, you might ask, what can we do?
First, get ahead of it. Find funding for classes and make sure that conventional wisdom passes down to the next generation.
Second, work to combat the anti-lighthouse keepers of the current movements. Start a pro-lighthouse keepers’ organization. Don’t let the insurgents control the narrative.
Third, show your support. Take pictures at lighthouses and tell your friends that you are pro-lighthouse keeper.
It is probably too late to save the lighthouse keepers. It’s conventional wisdom that they’re obsolete. The insurgents won, but we know the truth, and are now the underdogs. So maybe we can start pushing the pro-lighthouse keeper movement again. We sure could use some of the hope carried by lighthouse keepers right now.