Three men make a tiger...or not

Three men make a tiger could be called a couple of things in modern day examples like three teenagers in high school, three preteens in middle school those were the vicious gossipy years, and three siblings make growing up with one always in trouble. The story of three men make a tiger was created roughly 2.5 millenniums ago, but it still occurs today even when it makes no sense what is being said about said person that is not there to defend themselves. The worst part I think in the moral of the story is that in the act of “making a tiger” ones ethos can become irreparably damaged, which would in many ways destroy someone’s life. The story of three men make a tiger is that if three or more people said the same thing that others are more likely to believe whatever is being said compared to one or two people repeating the same topic or thought. It was an interesting proverb to learn but also an absurd one imagine constantly being put to reality or being referred to in a positive manner.

This specific proverb I think would be absurd if constantly put to reality and referred to in a positive learning manner, because it is so flawed right down to the core of the main idea. If America only had verbal story telling of its history, with each person the details would change until it not is the same story and becomes a completely new story with new problems and a new character. It is undisputable that at some point the story or topic would change completely and just become a game of telephone because people remember different parts and remember those parts differently, and the parts that were forgotten would have been made up regardless of whether it is truthful or not.

The second flaw within this proverb, is that legends can become believable according to three men make a tiger. I will be assumptious and say that I bet more than three people somewhere out there in the world believe in the Candyman legend, said legend being that that if you say Candyman five times he will return for revenge. Where is the principle of this legend to make it believable? It has yet (hopefully never) to be found, yet people still not only make movies about this but there are those who believe that when Candyman is said five times he will appear and revenge will be theirs.

A third flaw that I can see in this proverb, is that as humans we generally question if not everything a lot of things unless of course we don’t care whether its true/false or if it seems believable and we feel too lazy to double check the facts (which I feel happens more often than not but that is beside the point). It is in most of our nature to question what we hear or what we know if not to be more knowledgeable for ourselves then to outsmart those we surround ourselves with.

The fourth and biggest flaw I see may have to be social media, because if something has thousands of likes it must be true is what I hear more often than not from my peers. The logos behind that is that it must be true if so many people are talking, reading, or sharing it. A couple of years ago there was a woman who pretended to be a dying little girl just so that she could talk to celebrities and get autograph apparel. Everybody believed this woman she stole a picture of a little girl from the girl’s real life mother’s Facebook and created a fake Facebook account, with fake posts of medical struggles. The woman was finally caught but it took years and she did it to multiple people before she did, showcasing the gullibility that is present in social media but it is only present for so long.

So while three men make a tiger is an interesting proverb it is an utter fallacy because it has flaws like easily being turned into a game of telephone, legends, questioning nature of humans, and social media.