Hypothesis
In Dr. Seuss’s book, Sneetches, there are Sneetches that have stars on their bellies and Sneetches who don’t have stars on their bellies. The Sneetches with stars said, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches. We’ll have nothing to do with the plain belly sort!” Then one day, the Sneetches without stars managed to get them. The Sneetches with new stars said, “ We’re all just the same, now, you snooty old smarties!” The original star Sneetches replied, “We’re still the best Sneetches and they are the worst.
But, now, how in the world will we know?” Information is fluid, dynamic and flows relative to the surroundings. As the surrounding information changes, the subjects within also change even though it may be hard to tell.
Proof
Example 1 - The common misconception of people before the age of exploration that Earth was flat entered the popular imagination after Washington Irving’s publication of The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1828. This belief is even repeated in some widely read textbooks. Historically however, this was a common belief much earlier, perhaps as early as the 4th century BC. Many records suggest that by the 12th century “Europeans generally believed that the Earth was spherical.” Columbus’s “voyage to the Americas (1492) and finally Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation of the earth (1519-21) provided the final, practical proofs for the global shape of the earth. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth)
Columbus was not the “first European explorer to reach the Americas, as there are accounts of European transatlantic contact prior to 1492. Nevertheless, Columbus's voyage came at a critical time of growing national imperialism and economic competition between developing nation states seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies.”
(http://en.allexperts.com/q/General-History-674/columbus.htm)
Whether or not it is true that Columbus’s voyage actually led Europeans to believe that our earth was spherical, news of his journey demonstrated on a practical level how the Europeans could fully experience the true global shape of the earth.
Example 2 – In early America, a country founded on ‘freedom and liberty for all” allowed white people to purchase African-Americans people as slaves. The underlying assumption was that African-Americans were not worthy enough to be free and that whites were more worthy. As America matured, she created the “space for abolitionists to rally and the debate to proceed.” The Civil War led to the writing of the “Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments.“ (Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope, page 96) Congress finally passed “the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” (Barack Obama, page225). Today America is fulfilling Dr. King’s promise that “we be judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character.” America has recently voted to have Barack Obama, a half African-American to be the next democratic presidential candidate. Barack Obama in referring to his own character says, “I’ve never had the option of restricting my loyalties on the basis of race, or measuring my worth on the basis of tribe.” (Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope, page 231)
Conclusion
In the first example, the Europeans lived in a box very near to their homeland. After news spread of Columbus’s discovery of the Americas, Europeans had a whole new outlook or where they could live and where they could do business. In the second example, African-Americans were seen as a people that were unworthy relative to European whites. Through rallies, debates, wars, media coverage and speaking engagements, African-Americans are now seen as worthy of being leaders in America. The surrounding information changed and so did the people.