LITERATURE: The Unbearable Lightness – Timing

I seem to have a knack for reading the right book at the right time, where its relevancy to current events can be easily seen. Although it’s more probable that my memory–which was never good at best–only retains the most recent happenings.

Here we have an official from the Ministry checking in on Tomas two years after he’s lost his job and is working at a small clinic:

There was a short pause, after which the man from the Ministry said in mournful tones, "Then tell me, Doctor, do you really think that Communists should put out their eyes? You, who have given so many people the gift of health?"
"But that’s preposterous!" Tomas cried in self-defense. "Why don’t you read what I wrote?"
"I have read it," said the man from the Ministry in a voice that was meant to sound very sad.
"Well, did I write that Communists ought to put out their eyes?"
"That’s how everyone understood it," said the man from the Ministry, his voice growing sadder and sadder.
"If you’d read the complete version, the way I wrote it originally, you wouldn’t have read that into it. The published version was slightly cut."  (p. 186)

Ah, the fine editorial skills of the media, politicians, and of the political mobs. That’s why we get the wrong information presented when it’s taken out of context or twisted. Who’s actually voted on this tax or that, and when and why changes meaning with the full story.  Or this:

If McCain is elected as President, Sarah Palin will be a heartbeat
away from running our country- and if that doesn’t scare the hell out
of you, it should. There is significant risk of this occurring in his
first term alone, augmented by McCain’s age and history of cancer. 18%
of presidents have died in office. The possibility that Palin could
become president if McCain is elected is very real indeed.

18% of the 43 elected presidents means that 8 presidents have died in office, and that in fact is true. But of those 8, 4 were assassinated, 2 died of pneumonia, 1 died of a cerebral hemorrhage, and one died of food poisoning from eating cherries in (likely spoiled) milk on a hot day. Now how does that raise McCain’s chances of dying in office?  How is it relative in any way?  Yet I found this as a headline in a major Facebook (Hate) Group.  I wouldn’t doubt that there’s a group that espouses some twisted version of fact against the other candidates as well.

The point is, something strange happens to a lot of people at campaign time; some kind of chemical gets released in the brain and produces some pretty weird stories and believers.

NOTE: I have purposely avoided providing links to the above quote though it can be easily found, or backup on the facts I’ve stated–which can also easily be confirmed in several sites online.