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Things are Seldom What They Seem
I can remember just a few short years ago when the Russians were the aggressors and bad guys in their conflict with Ukraine, an independent nation with its own history going back many years and re-established since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1990 and whose side the United State initially supported.
Now, we have a president attempting to resolve that ongoing war on terms totally acceptable to Russia but unacceptable to Ukraine. I don’t know what caused this flip-flop in our approach to resolving that conflict. Some part of the story is absent or hidden.
I also can remember when the Department of Justice, which came into existence to enforce the Constitutional amendments resulting from the Civil War, served the people with the Attorney-General in the role of the people’s lawyer. Now that Department has become no more than the prosecutional tool of a president out to carry out revenge on his percieved enemies. I don’t know what caused this flip-flop in the role of the Department of Justice either. Some part of that story as well is absent or hidden.
With that in mind, let’s look at some lyrics from the 1878 Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, ‘HMS Pinafore,’ which made it clear to perceptive Englishmen ot that time that ‘things are seldom what they seem,’ expressed in a duet sung by Buttercup and Captain Corcoran. Gilbert and Sullivan might have seen it as satire related it to the class system then prevalent in British society and the politics of those days. Are we entitled to do the same thing?
Some of the words might seem unfamiliar today, but ‘dissemble,’ for example, still means ‘hiding the true meaning of what one is saying.’ Look it up! (Don't confuse it with 'disassemble.) Let’s look at G & S's words:
[Buttercup]
Things are seldom what they seem,
Skim milk masquerades as cream;
Highlows pass as patent leathers;
Jackdaws strut in peacock's feathers.
{Captain Cocoran]
Very true,
So they do.
[Butter]
Black sheep dwell in every fold;
All that glitters is not gold;
Storks turn out to be but logs;
Bulls are but inflated frogs.
[Captain]
So they be,
Frequentlee.
[Buttercup]
Drops the wind and stops the mill;
Turbot is ambitious brill;
Gild the farthing if you will,
Yet it is a farthing still.
[Captain]
Yes, I know.
That is so.
Though to catch your drift I'm striving,
It is shady — it is shady;
I don't see at what you're driving,
Mystic lady — mystic lady.
[Both]
Stern conviction's o'er me/him stealing,
That the mystic lady's dealing
In oracular revealing.
[Captain]
Yes, I know.
[Buttercup]
That is so!
[Captain]
Though I'm anything but clevеr,
I could talk like that for ever:
Oncе a cat was killed by care,
Only brave deserve the fair.
[Buttercup]
Very true,
So they do.
[Captain]
Wink is often good as nod;
Spoils the child who spares the rod;
Thirsty lambs run foxy dangers;
Dogs are found in many mangers.
[Buttercup]
Frequentlee,
I agree.
[Captain]
Paw of cat the chestnut snatches;
Worn-out garments show new patches;
Only count the chick that hatches;
Men are grown-up catchy-catchies.
[Buttercup]
Yes, I know,
That is so.
(aside) Though to catch my drift he's striving,
I'll dissemble — I'll dissemble;
When he sees at what I'm driving,
Let him tremble — let him tremble!
[Both]
Tho' a mystic tone I/you borrow,
He will/I shall learn the truth with sorrow;
Here today and gone tomorrow.
[Captain]
Yes, I know. That is so!
[Both]
Tho' a mystic tone you borrow,
(I'll dissemble,)
I shall learn the truth with sorrow;
(I'll dissemble, Let him tremble!)
Here today and gone tomorrow,
(Let him tremble! Let him tremble!)
Yes, I know, That is so!
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Governments, even then, were not above ‘dissembling,’ giving the people good cause to ‘tremble’ as they hid the real meaning of what they were saying and doing. A good example is the duet’s suggesting that a farthing is still a farthing regardless of how it is ‘gilded,’ something easily descriptive of today’s infatuation with crypto currencies. (‘Yet it is a farthing still.')
Captain Cocoran’s and Buttercup’s conclusion that ‘things are seldom what they seem’ has meaning for us today. Eventually, it may turn out that we ‘shall learn the truth with sorrow, Here today and gone tomorrow.’
JL
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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
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More on the Sources of Information on Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered daily ‘paper’ newspaper (now becoming the South Florida Sun Sentinel) and what appears in my daily email. Be aware that when I open that email, I take these steps:
1. I quickly scan the sources of the dozen or so emails I still get each day at my old email address to see from where they are being sent. Most are from vendors which I may have used years ago. Without reading 99% of them, I usually immediately delete them.
2. I then go to the email arriving at jacklippman18@gmail.com. Gmail enables ‘Promotion’ emails to be so designated and separated out. I believe their criteria are whether or not they end up asking for donations or if they are no more than advertisements. I ignore most of these ‘Promotion’ emails without reading them, deleting them. A very few, perhaps one or two a day, get moved over to the two or three dozen other emails which I will actually open.
3. Then I read my email.
Besides email, my other source of information is the Google search engine (or other search engines) where I can look up any subject I want.
Lately, these search results have been headed by a very generalized summary clearly labeled as being developed by AI (Artificial Intelligence). On occasion I might use such search results, but when I do, I will say that I am doing so. Generally, however, I try not to use such summaries in preparing Jackspotpourri.
After such ‘AI’ search results, then follows the other results of my search. Unlike the anonymous AI-generated summaries, the sources of these results are clearly indicated, giving them a greater credibility than any AI summary.
I feel that It comes down to who YOU want to be in the driver’s seat in seeking information: yourself or something else (Artificial Intelligence), the structure of which somewhere along the way had to have been created by others, with whose identity I am neither familiar nor comfortable. At least when I read a column by Timothy Snyder, for example, I know from where it comes, and to some extent, what to expect.
Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence.
JL
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