Only humans carry their past around

Posted by Leon on . Filed under: Notes. 2 comments.

Everything you did yesterday and last year is viewed as a guarantee of what you will do tomorrow and next year. But what if you are facing an upheaval? What if you’re getting divorced, or you left the Mormon church? What if you’re ashamed of a major upheaval? What if you lost your job and can’t find another one? Joe Clark.

Consistency is an overrated virtue. I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to think that something I wrote 18 months ago reflects what I think about things now. Or something I wrote a week ago, perhaps.

Comments

  1. john baker says:
    March 7, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    I was at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre last night to see Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. Your piece reminded me of a speech given by the main character, Dr Stockman:

    “I propose to raise a revolution against the lie that the majority has the monopoly
    of the truth. What sort of truths are they that the majority usually supports? They are truths that are of such advanced age that they are beginning to break up. And if a truth is as old as that, it is also in a fair way to become a lie, gentlemen. (Laughter and mocking cries.)
    Yes, believe me or not, as you like; but truths are by no means as long-lived as Methuselah–as some folk imagine. A normally constituted truth lives, let us say, as a rule seventeen or eighteen, or at most twenty years–seldom longer. But truths as aged as that are always worn frightfully thin, and nevertheless it is only then that the majority recognises them and recommends them to the community as wholesome moral nourishment. There is no great nutritive value in that sort of fare, I can assure you; and, as a doctor, I ought to know.

    Reply
    • Leon says:
      March 7, 2010 at 3:06 pm

      I’ve seen An Enemy of the People, but can’t for the life of me remember where. Stockman isn’t entirely sympathetic, is he?

      I saw Ghosts at a tiny performance in Woodbridge. Give me the sun… — that’s a great line, isn’t it?

      I like the idea of setting a precise time limit on the life of a truth. And perhaps we should automatically scrap blog posts after, say, six months.

      Reply

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