In reply to my discussion of how fast things change when they change, Peter wrote:
“On something being “congenitally wrong:” as Bob has said, this is how every revolution has looked at the beginning. When we show signs of success, suddenly 95% of everyone jumps on the bandwagon declaring that they were always secretly behind us.”
“Old Westerns are full of this theme. Take a corrupt town controlled by a crook. One man has had enough and takes action. A friend or two appear. The whole town that he is trying to help seems to be against him, but a latchkey mysteriously appears at just the right moment and an anonymous note with critical intelligence is dropped off at the last minute.”
“As Bob noted, Adams was wrong when he offhandedly said that a third of the people were behind the revolution of 1776, a third were indifferent, and a third were Tories. He was wrong because in the beginning, there were really only a handful and in the end almost everyone was behind it.”
“At a local grocery store, they were selling DVDs with two movies on each for $1.00. I got several of the Roy Rogers. I love these movies. Partly it is because it was shot in all my favorite places that I have hiked and explored so I can say oh, that is Melody Ranch, or Golden Oak, Vasquez Rocks, or the back side of Big Bear (it’s easy to sneak quietly onto the movie ranches if you keep an eye out for the dust cloud of a truck coming your way). But as hokey as this sounds, these old movies give me hope. ”
“In these old movies, Roy goes through all kinds of crap, loses everything including his reputation, gets injured, people hate him, but he always keeps his spirits up and sings great music for the ladies. And of course he always wins and the people thank him for helping them.”
Comment by Peter — 12/21
Actually, Peter, there is nothing mythical about the Roy Rogers scenario.
One of the most famous quotes from Texas history occurred when the Texas Rangers were the only law in the Republic of Texas, which lasted for ten years. There was a total breakdown of law and order in one town, everybody armed and shooting.
So the head of the Rangers sent a man there to straighten things out.
A newsman from the United States pointed out that there was a state of total anarchy there, so shouldn’t he have sent more men.
The head of the Rangers gave the reply that has gone down in history:
“One problem, one Ranger.”
The Ranger straightened things out and came on back for another assignment.
#1 by Peter on 12/25/2005 - 8:02 pm
Bob,
I have the answer: “How do you teach courage?”