Is the Past True?

A family emergency meant that we spent a lot of time in the car today. Of course you are always looking for entertainment and the radio is a wonderful source, so amongst other things apart from regular news bulletins we listened to; the characteristics of Winston Churchill (he was completely out of touch with ordinary people, not a surprise), how barbed wire changed the face of the American West (after it was invented in Iowa in1874), a protest by cleaners made redundant in Greece, our regular tale of country folk, and in the evening Premiership soccer. There was also a discussion about what it means to be human, now this was probably a little deep for mobile listening, but from what I could make out it was because humans uniquely are aware of their own mortality. For those of you who want to find out more there are another 5 of these programmes.

Now the programme that made me think most was a radio play by a contemporary author G. F. Newman. It was set in the nineteen sixties around a criminal family who were exploiting the weakness of the establishment and the “entrepreneurial” times to make their fortune. So far so run of the mill, however it named at least three real public figures, a Minister of Transport it accused of corruption, a high court judge of a penchant for young girls, and a head of the security services for liking young boys. Now I am going to make a big leap of faith that if this was broadcast on BBC national radio then it must have a smidgeon of truth.

So I was thinking this level of corruption and criminality was obviously commonplace in the early sixties, but was only known by a few insiders. So in our own era what is really happening is there this same level of veniality beneath the establishment façade, and if there is why should we have to wait 40 years for it to be exposed. Or through this radio play am I listening to somebody put a gloss on the past, after all I believe that it is not possible to libel the dead.

Well in the short term I cannot answer my own question, by posing it however I will undertake more research and see if I can form a view of this era, and try to conclude what of the past is true.