FACTS OVER FICTION

A couple of weeks ago, we ended up watching some snippets of the famous "Sound of Music" film. My 3-year old daughter couldn't be helped but started singing the songs. I grew up with this film too like many millions of children worldwide.

​Being the highest-grossing film of all time, it transcended time, culture, and boundaries and spoke universally to all. Yet, there were definite strategic departures from the real lives of the Von Trapp family.

-They didn't escape from the Nazis as depicted: they boarded a train instead
-Maria was not in love with the Captain;
-There were 10 children but only 7 when they left Austria;
-The Austrians didn't recognize edelweiss as a national flower and so on and so forth.

These ensure that the film is as marketable as possible with the broadest audience particularly, families and children. It was an astounding success in all counts, but the public wasn't really aware and able to distinguish between fact and fiction. To this day, we relished with the saccharine story oblivious to the facts, the former, unfortunately shaping public consciousness up to this day.

Decision-making as we all know, calls for the careful examination of facts to arrive at an outcome that is amenable to all parties concerned. But when the facts that we know were half-truths, the thinking process will be flawed and at worst, the findings will be suspect. When assumptions are not tested and challenged, we go by popular vote or consensus because that is politically correct; we missed out on what provocation and challenge could produce-a deep appreciation of the issues and a more strategic approach to getting to solutions.

The sad reality is the facts are fodders for fiction and fiction mimics reality. But make no mistake, triple-check your facts, weigh in on the evidence, and then move to create a compelling case that eliminates the tendency to do more research or other unnecessary steps.
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