Not to be taken seriously, but worth a post I think.
Anyone old enough to have memories going back fifty years or more must have seen many major cultural and economic changes over their lifetime. Any fifty year period within the past few centuries would probably show equally dramatic changes.
For example, I’ve seen many changes from growing up on a Derby council estate to what sometimes seems like the absurd luxury of modern life. Cultural changes seem even more absurd with politicians now little more than puppets in an insane theatre where imbecile opinion endlessly shouts down rational analysis.
Taking another fifty year period, my parents must have seen enormous changes between 1930 and 1980. They would have seen not only the colossal effects of World War II but major cultural, technical and economic changes afterwards.
As an earlier example, if we take the period from about 1880 to 1930, there are marked changes to the cultural assumptions embedded in fictional detective stories. Writers wrote from within their world for readers who expected much the same, apart from curious daggers, exotic poisons, and shifty butlers.
As we have moved on to fiction, suppose take an imaginary plot for a detective story where a grisly murder has been committed in a local squire’s country house full of guests.
In the 1880 version on this story, the gentry, the local squire and particularly the aristocracy are treated with great deference by the police. The gentry are very well connected, know the Chief Constable socially and have government connections. There are significant limits to the scope of any police investigation, important constraints must be observed, scandal must be avoided and the Squire’s dignity upheld.
Fifty years later, in the 1930 version of the story, the Squire’s social ascendancy and the deference have not disappeared, but the police are firmly in charge of the investigation. They restrict the movement of the Squire’s guests and question them as they choose because knowing the Chief Constable is not the protection it once was. The Squire and his guests may grumble but they defer to police officialdom because they know they must.
By 1930, officialdom wins in the end and the Squire and the gentry know it. They must find other ways to remain influential, join what they cannot beat and move away from the culture of the country house. It has all become something of a burden anyway.
They are still with us of course, even though the country house, tennis parties and tea on the lawn have largely gone. Influence is preserved through different channels.
And it wasn't usually the butler who did it.
4 comments:
Yes, the deference shown by fictional police is very revealing. I was reminded of Priestly's An Inspector Calls, where the crass northern industrialist Mr. Birling is shut up and put in his place by the Inspector. It was written around the time of the Second World War, but is set in 1912.
I wonder how Lord Peter Wimsey or Sherlock Holmes would have dealt with Pakistani rape gangs?
"Thank you for making time to accommodate my concerns", said the stranger, having sufficiently warmed himself by the embers of the Baker Street fire. "I have a tale to tell of the utmost depravity and pathos, yet one that requires the most delicate circumspection in the telling. Are you familiar, Mr. Holmes, with the societal upheavals which have recently afflicted certain of our northern mill towns?..."
"Influence is preserved through different channels"
1) Money
2) Having some "Dirt" on your intended target!
I have always lived in the Age of Antibiotics. And have used computers for more than fifty years.
But I have also lived through an age of the socialist ratchets. Thus, when Crosland and Williams decided to bugger up the state schools it was obvious, and has proved true, that they were unlikely ever to be restored to such good form.
Sam - "Curious," said Mr Holmes, "it was not reported in the Times."
"Precisely," said the stranger, "our newspapers perceive the absolute need for the most delicate circumspection in this matter. Instructions from the highest level insist that this delicacy must be maintained. The ordinary person must not hear of it."
Dave - yes, follow the money as they say. I bet they all have dirt on each other too.
dearieme - yes, it has been age of the socialist ratchets. I've no faith in state education after the experience of our grandkids. Some teachers should be teachers at all, but some parents shouldn't be parents either.
Post a Comment