What If Napoleon Never Existed

What if Napoleon nev­er existed?

Most of us are con­vinced that Napoleon Bonaparte was an actu­al his­tor­ic­al figure.

Well, what if Napoleon nev­er existed?

Here we go:

What If Napoleon Never Existed?

Ponder this:

1. Napoleon is just a vari­ation of Apoleon or Apollo, and as God of the Sun, he was named Bonaparte, which means “the good part of the day” (when the sun shines).

2. Just as Apollo was born on the Mediterranean island of Delos, Napoleon was born on the Mediterranean island of Corsica.

3. Napoleon’s moth­er, Letitia, can be iden­ti­fied as Leto, Apollo’s moth­er. Both names mean joy and hap­pi­ness, sig­nalling the sun keep­ing the night at bay.

4. Letitia had three daugh­ters — as did Leto, Apollo’s moth­er.

5. Napoleon’s four broth­ers rep­res­ent the four sea­sons. Three broth­ers became kings, except for one broth­er who became Prince of Canino (derived from ‘cani,’ white, winter, age­ing).

6. Napoleon was driv­en out of France by Northern armies, as Appolo, the Sun God, was driv­en away by the North Wind.

7. Napoleon had two wives, as did Apollo. They rep­res­ent the Earth and the Moon. Apollo nev­er had any chil­dren with the Moon, but the Earth gave him a son, rep­res­ent­ing the fer­til­iz­a­tion of all green plants on Earth. Napoleon’s son was allegedly born on the 21^st of March, the equi­nox in which the plane of Earth’s equat­or passes through the Sun’s centre (the Summer Solstice).

8. Apollo saved Greece from the dragon Python, and Napoleon saved France from the hor­rors of revolu­tion (derived from ‘revolvo,’ some­thing that crawls).

9. Napoleon’s twelve gen­er­als sym­bol­ise the twelve creatures of the zodi­ac, and his four gen­er­als rep­res­ent North, West, South, and East.

10. Napoleon, the Sun Myth, always conquered the South but was always defeated by the cold winds of the North. Like the Sun, Napoleon rose in the East — he was born in Corsica) — and dawned in the West — he died on St. Helena.”

Above is how the British writer Rupert Furneaux demon­strates how to cast doubt on the exist­ence of Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the most fam­ous char­ac­ters in his­tory. ¹Rupert Furneaux. (2023, April 8). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​R​u​p​e​r​t​_​F​u​r​n​e​aux

Is there a ser­i­ous case for the non-exist­ence of Napoleon, one of the most prom­in­ent fig­ures in his­tory? This con­spir­acy the­ory demon­strates how eas­ily it is to cast doubt over the exist­ence of one of history’s most well-doc­u­mented figures. 

It’s almost like magic:

With just a few cherry-picked argu­ments, it’s pos­sible to make people believe that Napoleon wasn’t a real man but a myth, a Sun god.

Cherry-Picking (or “Fallacy of Incomplete Evidence”)

Cherry-pick­ing: “Our sales in Europe have grown by 20% this quarter, so our entire glob­al expan­sion strategy is clearly work­ing — nev­er mind the down­turn in Asia and North America.”

Cherry-pick­ing occurs when indi­vidu­als or organ­iz­a­tions select­ively high­light data, evid­ence, or examples that sup­port their argu­ment or desired out­come while ignor­ing or down­play­ing inform­a­tion that con­tra­dicts it. This select­ive focus cre­ates a mis­lead­ing or incom­plete view of the situ­ation, lead­ing to faulty con­clu­sions and decisions.

In a busi­ness con­text, cherry-pick­ing can be par­tic­u­larly dan­ger­ous because it leads to an overly optim­ist­ic or skewed under­stand­ing of per­form­ance. Organisations may make decisions based on an incom­plete pic­ture by ignor­ing rel­ev­ant neg­at­ive factors or risks, poten­tially over­look­ing chal­lenges or under­es­tim­at­ing risks that could affect long-term success.

To avoid the pit­falls of cherry-pick­ing, busi­ness lead­ers must pri­or­it­ize a com­pre­hens­ive and bal­anced ana­lys­is of all rel­ev­ant data. It’s essen­tial to con­sider a situ­ation’s pos­it­ive and neg­at­ive aspects, acknow­ledge poten­tial risks, and base decisions on a com­plete and accur­ate assess­ment. By fos­ter­ing a cul­ture of trans­par­ency and crit­ic­al think­ing, com­pan­ies can make more informed decisions con­sid­er­ing their strategies’ broad­er con­text and complexities.

Learn more: Logical Fallacies and Cognitive Biases

The Makings of a Conspiracy Theory

Studies have shown that we are sus­cept­ible to inform­a­tion presen­ted in frag­ments that sup­port one spe­cif­ic pos­i­tion while sim­ul­tan­eously leav­ing out con­tra­dict­ory evid­ence. It’s cherry-pick­ing. ²Cherry pick­ing. (2023, September 24). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​C​h​e​r​r​y​_​p​i​c​k​ing

We shouldn’t be sur­prised. We live in a time where a grow­ing num­ber of con­spir­acy the­or­ists are act­ively con­vin­cing them­selves that the Earth is flat. That’s how low the bar is set.

The point is that we seem to have an end­less capa­city for belief in the absence of evid­ence. It doesn’t mat­ter if it’s the media, gov­ern­ments, reli­gion, interest groups, or two friends in a bar.

Bullshit is a nat­ur­al human expres­sion.
Try not to step into it.

THANKS FOR READING.
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