Heeding Lord Acton

PEOPLE LOVE A GOOD STORY. Good stories are the foundation of all human culture. People love to embrace them, to make them real, a part of their lives, even to the point of accepting fictitious myths as factual. Sometimes, the opposite is true. sometimes, a factual account seems so unbelievable that it is rejected as fictitious, relegated to the realm of myth. When peace spontaneously broke out in the trenches of World War One, nobody believed that this had actually happened for decades, even though it was confirmed, verified, corroborated, documented by hundreds of documents, mostly personal letters. It all began when a British unit decided to cease firing long enough to enjoy a proper breakfast. Only a few hundred yards away, the Germans decided to do the same. The behavior grew and spread. As Christmas approached, the Germans began placing Christmas tress in front of their trenches, and decorating them, and singing Christmas carols. Soon, thousands of enemy combatants were shaking hands, exchanging gifts, sharing eggnog, and singing Christmas carols together. Safely ensconced behind the lines, the generals on both sides were outraged, at what they considered cowardly, traitorous behavior. They began issuing commands requiring their men to provided tangible proof that teh blood letting had resumed, and the fun was over. This inspiring anecdote lends credence to the popular notion that we the masses are fundamentally peace loving creatures, but placid, passive, willing to easily submit to authority, and easily led astray by ambitious, foolish leaders. Einstein, a pacifist whose views in cold war America often aroused the enmity of right wingers, suggested that if all men in the world of military service age would refuse to participate in military service, war could be ended forever. Lord Acton's famous admonition that power corrupts, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely also seems true. It behooves us the powerless masses to remember our ever present potential for exercising power, regardless of its normally lying dormant.