Reality is bunk

“Perhaps Love is like the ocean, full of conflict, full of pain …”
(Perhaps Love, words and music by John Denver, allegedly)

The above words came to mind this morning, but it took some effort to uncover the recording that has Placido Domingo and John Denver singing side by side. Denver is said to have written it, but I doubt it – listen to the whole thing here and judge for yourself.

From my view, Denver was a gifted singer, played a mean 12-string, and was chosen for fame, assigned to a military family for management (Lt. Col. Deutschendorf). He was given songs that appealed to the environmentalist mindset coming of age in that time, the post-Earth Day 70s.

One of them, Rocky Mountain High, is now the state song for Colorado, alongside Where the Columbines Grow, a much weaker anthem of a forgone era. Rocky Mountain High comes complete with a backstory, about how his wife Annie and friends were on a camping trip and witnessed a mountain thunder storm that inspired him. I want to believe that, and imagine the real songwriter experienced an event like that, indeed stunning to behold.

(We once hiked into Titcomb Basin in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and encountered a lone backpacker making his way out. His eyes were buggy, as he had not slept the night before during a thunderstorm. He laid there, he said, in fear, sure his tent would be struck by lightening. He was in a cirque, and in that situation sound echoes and reverberates, and can indeed induce terror.)

I chose those words because of what I’ve been reading and thinking lately, that most of life goes on beneath the horizon, unseen. I mean this both personally and on a wide scale. We seldom say what we think, or mean what we say. Most of our thoughts go unspoken. I think the calm ocean, with conflict and pain going on everywhere below, is a good metaphor.

I’ve been re-reading a book called Doubt, A History, by Jennifer Michael Hecht. I know very little about the author, but gather from the book that she has depth and breadth, wide scholarship in the field she chose to study, atheism. And, yes, of course, she is Jewish, not a problem for me at all. My favorite people are usually Jewish. I came across this book maybe fifteen years ago, and read it and took copious notes. I’ve not referred to the notes in my current reading, but will when done, as I want to know what piqued my interest then versus now.

This is not a book review. It’s a captivating book if you’ve time, or not. I made the mistake of giving the book to someone way back then, and can say for sure that my original copy was never read, and is sitting  on a shelf for display only. It is always a mistake to give away books. People will only read what inspires them, and not me. I am not speaking down, but rather across.

The overriding theme of the book is the importance of doubt, and I see that and agree in total. Doubt and skepticism should be our outlook on life, to never trust, and always verify. That latter word, verify, well, good luck on that. Most of history is hidden, as is most of the present. It takes time and effort to uncover that reality.

This writing follows a discussion on history with my spouse, my take echoing that of Henry Ford, that “history is bunk”. Here’s AI on that subject:

This quote, published in a 1916 Chicago Tribune interview, was part of a broader dismissal of traditional history as mere tradition.  Ford argued that “We don’t want tradition.  We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s dam is the history we make today.” He believed that written history focused too much on kings and generals while ignoring the daily lives of ordinary people and industrial progress. 

That makes Ford sound like Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States. That book was a truly distorted lens, as I see it, placing far too much emphasis on individuals and crediting them with movements more likely originating higher above in the power structure. I would call People’s History … bunk, I suppose, for lack of a better word.

I am more inclined to think that Ford meant that history is bunk, that is, false, beginning to end. I do not imagine him as one to soften his words.

I have an image in my mind of historians standing abreast of passing time, walking backwards and re-writing events as they transpire. A guiding hand is on each shoulder, and a quiet whisper in the ear … “Write what I say, Not what you see.”

The American Revolution, for example, was concluded by the Treaty of Paris, the opening line from which follow:

It having pleased the Divine Providence to dispose the Hearts of the most Serene and most Potent Prince George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain …

OK, that’s just formal diplomatic language, but the document itself is only 1,900 words, remarkably short. In it you will find subservience and genuflection among the delegates (John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay representing the colonies) and the Potent Prince George III. What had happened? It’s mostly hidden beneath the surface, but as I see it, the colonies, far beyond reach of the King and his troops, had grown weary of British rule and desired to break free. King George agreed to allow that to happen, but on this proviso: that when the conflict was over, Britain would still rule the colonies. Does it trouble anyone at all that all of our presidents save one (Martin van Buren, of Dutch descent) are descendants of British royalty? (AI on that subject: “Context: Such connections are common among people of British Isles descent due to pedigree collapse over centuries.”) 

I doubt there’s been a pedigree collapse as stated by AI, and in fact believe that the Peerage is intact to this day, and that, hidden beneath the calm ocean of our historical viewpoint, the Peerage still rules in our politics of high office, our music and entertainment world, and our history books. For that reason, it is best to take Ford at his word, History is Bunk. Those assigned scholars called historians are walking backwards as we go, rewriting reality as we go, and their false reality is affirmed by the likes of Wikipedia and AI.

News is bunk, movies are bunk, education is bunk, reality is hard to come by. For almost all of our vision, our reality is bunk. In fact, I see all of the cast of that era, called our “Founding Fathers”, and in days forward to the present, as British agents.