Fifty Years

Not to be taken seriously, but worth a post I think.

Anyone old enough to have memories going back fifty years or more must have seen many major cultural and economic changes over their lifetime. Any fifty year period within the past few centuries would probably show equally dramatic changes.

For example, I’ve seen many changes from growing up on a Derby council estate to what sometimes seems like the absurd luxury of modern life. Cultural changes seem even more absurd with politicians now little more than puppets in an insane theatre where imbecile opinion endlessly shouts down rational analysis.

Taking another fifty year period, my parents must have seen enormous changes between 1930 and 1980. They would have seen not only the colossal effects of World War II but major cultural, technical and economic changes afterwards.

As an earlier example, if we take the period from about 1880 to 1930, there are marked changes to the cultural assumptions embedded in fictional detective stories. Writers wrote from within their world for readers who expected much the same, apart from curious daggers, exotic poisons, and shifty butlers.

As we have moved on to fiction, suppose take an imaginary plot for a detective story where a grisly murder has been committed in a local squire’s country house full of guests.

In the 1880 version on this story, the gentry, the local squire and particularly the aristocracy are treated with great deference by the police. The gentry are very well connected, know the Chief Constable socially and have government connections. There are significant limits to the scope of any police investigation, important constraints must be observed, scandal must be avoided and the Squire’s dignity upheld.

Fifty years later, in the 1930 version of the story, the Squire’s social ascendancy and the deference have not disappeared, but the police are firmly in charge of the investigation. They restrict the movement of the Squire’s guests and question them as they choose because knowing the Chief Constable is not the protection it once was. The Squire and his guests may grumble but they defer to police officialdom because they know they must.

By 1930, officialdom wins in the end and the Squire and the gentry know it. They must find other ways to remain influential, join what they cannot beat and move away from the culture of the country house. It has all become something of a burden anyway.

They are still with us of course, even though the country house, tennis parties and tea on the lawn have largely gone. Influence is preserved through different channels.