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poliphiloIt'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.
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.
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Date: 2016-12-28 02:54 pm (UTC)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.
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Date: 2016-12-28 04:18 pm (UTC)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
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Date: 2016-12-28 04:32 pm (UTC)Nice! I have not read it.
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Date: 2016-12-28 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-29 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-29 09:01 pm (UTC)