Who knows, it may even be true: on the conclusion of the final draft of the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin was supposedly asked by a woman in the crowd what the new government would be. He replied, "A Republic, madam -- if you can keep it."
The story does not record her scowling reaction at the great man, saying, "Whut?" and then later denouncing the Constitution to her friends and neighbors as a plot by the intellectual elite against the common man, but the older I get and the more I see of The People, the more likely it seems.
We are terribly social creatures, gossipy and quarrelsome; we want our lives to be as richly complex as the plot line of a soap opera, filled with secret plans, behind-the-scenes machinations and all manner of larger-than-life heroes and villains. We want it so badly that when we don't get it, we make it up.
What stories are you and your friends telling yourselves and one another -- and have you checked them carefully against reality?
Maybe we'd all better. Too many people are dying of "It can't happen to me" already.
As an official old fart I can say I buried my share of friends who really, really believed that "It can't happen to me". I tell my grandchildren think before doing something stupid and "Yes it can happen to you".
ReplyDeleteMy favorite war story will always remain, now I hardly talk about them, is nothing ever happened to me. That has kept my pals happy, cause we know and hardly have to talk about it.
ReplyDeleteThe best reporting I've seen has been on nhk japan (we get here in uk on freesat). As you might expect it's very calm no hysterical headlines or point scoring. Just presenting the facts and trying to explain it all.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/kkCwFkOZoOY
ReplyDelete"A person is smart, people are dumb..."
Kinda made me think of that.