Posted by
Tom Rand on Sunday, September 16, 2007 10:48:52 AM
I just got back from a long weekend in the UK and thought I’d write a few words about what went through my mind while driving from place to place (we visited London, Stonehenge, Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea)…
Before I really begin, just a note about driving ‘on the wrong side of the road’; According to the oft derided Wikipedia, 34 percent of the world drives on the left and it may have been the rule of the road used by the Romans and even further back than that. Additionally, there is an argument made that it may be more instinctual than driving on the right (the whole going clockwise and people being right-eye dominate thing). I don’t know about all that, I just know I kept reaching for the stick shift with my right hand and only ended-up grabbing the door handle...
Now, to the point…While visiting some of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring relics of past centuries, I tried to transpose today’s left onto or into scenarios, especially those scenarios concerning war, defense and politics. Here is what went through my mind:
What place would today’s elitist left have had in say, 1300 AD? What positions would they have held? Would there have been a place for their kind?
In the simplest terms, one would have to equate modern celebrities to the court jester, I suppose. The entertainers of then (and now) were not the warriors. They were the weak and survived due to their ability to take their protector’s minds off of important tasks, albeit for short periods. They were not the sword wielders that staved-off the bad guys nor were they the stone masons that built the walls. They were not the blacksmiths that forged the armor nor were they the farmers that sowed the crops. But, they would have survived because of these ‘simple folk.’ Their very lives were dependant upon them. I don’t believe that a jester would have dared to scoff (at least in public) or deride his benefactors in those times. It would have certainly led to a painful and probably public death. After all, the realm could have easily survived without the juggler; the same could not have been said of the ‘simple folk.’
As for other comparisons, there were most assuredly ‘doves’—those that wanted to negotiate, at all costs, or to even bow to the invaders or potential invaders. These types also owed their survival to the ‘beasts’ that protected them when the inevitable siege took place. I can almost see some of today’s peace-at-any-cost-nanny-pansies running for cover behind the Keep when the arrows started flying…all the while fretting, “Why do they hate us so much?!”
Throughout the history of Man, the strong have protected the weak. It enables a preservation of the species. Keeping the intellectuals, the entertainers and others of their kind alive allows for a leveling-out of our more brutish side. It just strikes me as odd that in modern times, those that protect and serve these squishy whiners are often characterized—publicly—as more evil than the enemy.
BTW, here are a couple links to cool stuff we saw on our trip:
http://www.castlewales.com/cardiff.html; http://www.castlewales.com/oyster.html; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Baths_%28Bath%29;