Assignment 4 Rebekah George

 

This picture, entitled simply “Mandela Walks Free”, rocked South Africa to the core. Nelson Mandela was finally free. After 27 years behind bars for peacefully demanding equal rights in South Africa, some feared his release and the end of apartheid would spark civil war in South Africa. What I find interesting about it, however, is neither the great things that he would go on to for South Africa—as bad as that may sound—nor is it that he became a symbol of peace and reconciliation. Both of these things are ridiculously phenomenal, and we should absolutely celebrate Mandela’s life and his accomplishments, but there is something far more interesting that I find about his release.  

The Mandela Effect: the name given to the phenomenon of collective misremembering of specific facts or events, named such as many of Mandela’s fellow prisoners believe him to have died in prison. (David Emery, Snopes) That is what they remember. Another example would be the “Berenstein Bears”, which I found out maybe a couple of months ago are actually the "Berenstain Bears". My life is a lie, and we live in the Matrix. The entirety of the internet is in an uproar about the blatant evidence of Neo’s universe in this one blast from the past. The theories about why this happens are incredibly strange, but also really interesting. My personal favorites are all conspiracy theories, of course.

1.      Parallel Universes

2.      The Matrix

3.      Aliens (I haven’t read anything that says that this is a theory, but I’m sure someone believes it.)

4.      Cognitive dissonance

Examples of this happening are everywhere: Star Wars, Forrest Gump, and even McDonalds.  I do not know why this happens, and no one else really seems to either, but I hope that it’s one of the not boring, science-y reasons.  I want parallel universes, the Matrix, and aliens. *Cries*