and The Man Said . . . . I Don't Care!

FEBRUARY 2018 – I expect that almost everyone who reads this has seen the film “The Fugitive”, starring Harrison Ford as Dr Richard Kimble (the wrongly convicted innocent who escaped and became ‘the fugitive’) and Tommy Lee Jones as Deputy U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard, Kimble’s pursuer. Tense stuff.

For me the crunch scene was when the marshal chased Kimble into the bowels of a building from which there seemed to be little chance of his escape. “Give it up, Richard,” called the Deputy Marshal. In desperation Kimble called back to his pursuer “I didn’t kill my wife!” The Deputy Marshal shouted back: “I don’t care!” 

What an awful thing to say you might think, until you recognise that his job was simply to catch his man. That was what he was paid to do and that was all he cared about. Everything else about the case was not his concern and, in his eyes, could be ignored until he, the marshal, had completed his task. Perhaps we should keep that thought in mind next time we come nose-to-nose with myopic officialdom but I’ll leave it to you to apply as you think fit.

Recently I’ve been listening to a man who seems to have come to grips with these things, and I’ve concluded that too many of us live our lives this way. We are often ignorant (don’t know), sometimes ignore-ant (don’t want to know) and, occasionally, we are both, and arrogant to boot. (Arrogant, ignorant, ignore-ant). Sometimes we simply follow a false trail of supposedly reasonable propositions . . . and then we find that we are ignorant, or ignore-ant and/or arrogant! On top of everything else . . . . ignore-ants usually don’t care, just like Deputy Gerard. Sometimes referred to as ‘jobs-worths’.

I’ve written elsewhere about the folly of doing the same thing over and over and expecting to obtain a different result. It just doesn’t make sense, does it? I’ve also noted that so many of us want to see changes in our world but we don’t want to change. We want someone or something else to change but not us, if you don’t mind.

Desirable changes don’t happen by non participation; meaning we won’t obtain the changes we want to see without taking part in the action. If we don’t participate, we shall simply see the change that somebody else wants and we probably won’t like it. Their changes will be done to us. Briefly and brutally, it is a matter of: “Put up, or shut up.” The picture below illustrates my point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                             King John at Runnymede in 1215, surrounded by his armed barons.

The spade work was done for us 800 years ago and down through the centuries the results of their rebellion against tyranny have been visited and revisited, tested and retested. 

Now for the truly exciting bit. What those men and women achieved and King John conceded is as vital today as it was then. It is called Magna Carta 1215 and it is the basis not only of our Constitution but the Constitution of USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and others. It assures us of our lawful rights and privileges which cannot be taken away unless we allow them to be taken away. 

Sir Winston Churchill put it this way:

“We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English Speaking World and which, through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, Habeas Corpus, Trial by Jury and the English Common Law, find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.”

My question to you is: Are you ignorant or ignore-ant of your inheritance? Do you care?

Somebody once told me their definition of hell:

“On your last day on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become.” — Anonymous

Now there’s a thought. Here is another one:

Some people might disagree with my interpretation of our essential law and that’s O.K. But let’s not be abusive, profane, boorish while we disagree. Not you. Not me. There was a time when none of us thought the way we do today. Then we changed. Now we no longer do what we’ve always done and that’s worth thinking about, too.

Finally, I urge you

Cause no harm

Be honest

Be peaceful

Be responsible

♦♦

Realise with real eyes the real lies