Knowledge

Received ‘wisdom’ says that the people who lived before us, and particularly in the Middle Ages, knew far less than we do, but what stands out the most for me from my research is they were infinitely more knowledgeable. What we have is much more information at hand, most of it little better than trivia, but they had real, embodied knowledge of their world. They understood the chemistry of plants and minerals, how to make the most of it and what to avoid. They knew when and how to gather and prepare for food or craft. Their daily practical skills and self-reliance put us to shame, with our dependence on factory-made products that don’t need to exist.

~Joumana Medlej

Cross-cultural persuasion

What are we going to tell them, Teyla? “Listen, kiddies, everything you believe to be true is wrong, and trust us because we've been here for almost an hour.”

~Stargate Atlantis 1:06 Childhood's End

It's amazing that it's taken over 7 years of Gate travel for someone to articulate this. Even more amazing that it's McKay, not exactly known for his humility or seeing other people's point of view, who realises it.

Nothing to do with the quote, but MacKay being babysat by these two is one of the fun things in this episode.

[Edit: he does spoil it a few scenes later when he proposes stealing the power source from their only defences, and then solving the obvious safety issue by deporting them all to Atlantis 🤦‍♀️]