poliphilo: (bah)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2016-12-28 01:35 pm

Unless Someone Invents A Tardis...And Even Then....

It's always pointless to ask what a figure from history would think, do or say about some contemporary phenomenon- as in "Would Churchill have supported Brexit?" or "Would Agatha Christie have approved of her stories being sexed up?" Human beings can't be taken out of their time and plonked down in another with their personalities and attitudes intact. Our souls may be immortal but nothing else about us is.

Churchill for instance: If he were alive and active today would have had to have been born in the late 1920s at the earliest; he'd not have had  a Victorian upbringing, wouldn't have experienced any of the imperial wars or political crises that formed him and would have been far too young to have been Prime Minister during the Second World War. In short he'd be a completely different person. We are what we are as the consequence of heredity, nurture, education and experience- all of which are specific to a particular place and time.

And if we could transport Churchill as he was in 1940 through time and ask his Victorian brain to sort out Brexit for us just think how bewildered he'd be by all the changes and how long it would take us to get him up to speed on all the history and technology he'd missed out on.
sovay: (Rotwang)

[personal profile] sovay 2016-12-28 02:54 pm (UTC)(link)
"Would Churchill have supported Brexit?" or "Would Agatha Christie have approved of her stories being sexed up?"

I think when most people ask that question they are thinking in the time traveler/ghost mode rather than imagining a person who is genetically Agatha Christie but was born sometime in the 1950's.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2016-12-28 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm sure you're right.

Agatha the ghost would get up to speed on 21st century mores quicker than most, I think. She was very good at keeping abreast of the times. She has a book, Endless Night I think it's called, narrated by a 1960s wide boy and it's practically note perfect
sovay: (PJ Harvey: crow)

[personal profile] sovay 2016-12-28 04:32 pm (UTC)(link)
She has a book, Endless Night I think it's called, narrated by a 1960s wide boy and it's practically note perfect

Nice! I have not read it.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2016-12-28 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
One of her best, I think. The role of the wide-boy would have exactly fitted the young Hywel Bennett.

[identity profile] artkouros.livejournal.com 2016-12-29 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
He'd probably be a billionaire grocery chain owner.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2016-12-29 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Not unlikely. Really smart people don't go into politics any more.