WHAT IS SELLING?

For the last two days there is a lot media space and mind space given to the CERN research centre having discovered a new subatomic particle that could be the elusive Higgs boson, which is believed to be crucial in the formation of the universe.

Some people are really gung-ho about the finding and some are totally rubbishing it. 

Also, there is a big chunk of people who have absolutely no clue about what they are talking about and are confusing the ‘GOD PARTICLE’ to ‘GOD’.

Although I am still reading through this piece of news and haven’t formed a concrete opinion on the same. 

But this news did prompt me to write a post on something very different yet connected.

So what exactly is CERN research centre trying to do?

Well in my opinion they are trying to SELL AN IDEA that they believe has a solid RTB (Reason to believe).

Now it’s upto us whether we buy that Idea or reject it.

What is selling?

An art or science?

I would say it’s nothing but CONVICTION.

If you are convinced about an IDEA you’ll do anything to sell that idea and if you are not then you’ll do the selling halfheartedly.

Sometimes you would not even understand the true potential of an idea but it fructifies into something magnanimous that generations to come in will stay in awe of.

I guess so far I am just talking and talking. Now let me explain through an example.

Dayton, Tennessee is a tiny town of around 7,000 people, in US.

In 1925 an event took place there that made it world famous.

It was known as ‘The Trial Of The Century’.

The State of Tennessee had passed an act which made it illegal to teach evolution in state schools.

A young science teacher, John Scopes, was found to have been doing just that.

He was arrested and brought to trial.

Two of the most famous legal minds in America headed the opposite side in the case.

Three-time Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan headed up the prosecution.

Famous lawyer Clarence Darrow headed up the defense.

The trial set the modernists against the fundamentalists.

The main case for the defense was that The Bible was not meant to be taken completely literally.

The fundamentalist argued for the prosecution that every word of The Bible was the absolute literal truth.

The literal truth.

So mankind was descended from Adam and Eve.

And teaching that we were descended from monkeys was blasphemy.

Throughout the trial, Williams Jennings Bryan was keen to show off his knowledge of The Bible.

Being a Presidential candidate, he’d been doing this for many years and was proud of it.

The defense masterstroke came towards the end of the trail.

In a brilliant move, they called Williams Jennings Bryan, the prosecutor, to the stand.

As an expert on The Bible.

The judge at first refused to allow it, but Bryan himself insisted.

This was his chance to show off his Biblical knowledge.

Once on the stand, the defense was able to demonstrate just what nonsense Bryan’s case was.

And they ridiculed his insistence that The Bible was historical fact.

It was science versus dogma.

Their exchange became the high point of the trial, and all the subsequent media coverage.

But what impressed me most was something very few people know about that trial. It was a publicity stunt.

In 1925 the American Civil Liberties Union had run an ad offering to finance the defense of anyone caught teaching evolution.

Three locals from the little town of Dayton were discussing the ad in the local drugstore.

Walter White the school superintendent, Sue K. Hicks a local attorney, and George Rappelyea, a representative for the local coal and Iron Company.

Rappelyea said “This could be just the thing to put our little town on the map. Think of the income a trial like this could generate.”

They asked a 24 year old substitute teacher, John Scopes, if he’d agree to do it.

He said he couldn’t remember if he’d ever taught evolution or not.

They said it didn’t matter, he could pretend he had.

And they persuaded three high school students to testify that he had.

And that’s how ‘The Trial Of the Century’ happened.

At the time there were millions of words by hundreds of reporters, in newspapers, magazines, books, and radio coverage all over the world.

In the decades since, there have been films and TV shows, starring Hollywood superstars like Kirk Douglas, Spencer Davis, Jack Lemmon, and George C Scott.

The revenue generated by that trial made Dayton famous and its residents wealthy.

Even today, there’s still a thriving tourist industry.

People coming to visit the museum, the schoolhouse and court house where it all happened.

To stay overnight, eat at the restaurants, and buy souveniers.

85 years later, tourist dollars are still coming into Dayton, Tennessee, population 7,000.

And that’s how three people chatting in a small local drugstore put their little town on the map.

SO IN A NUTSHELL FUNDAMENTAL OF SELLING IS NOTHING BUT CONVICTION IN YOUR IDEA.

Time will tell whether all of us will believe in the conviction of CERN scientists or not. Till that time congratulations to the team who have sacrificed their lives for half a decade to prove what they believed in.