Tuesday, August 04, 2015
When crimethink wasn't crimethink
Following on this item about an earlier time when Yankees were able to feign something like tolerance for S*******ers.
Also following on my repeated references to the WPA Guides, which showed that even Scientists were capable of perceiving facts and logic in the 1930s. We've lost all of that and infinitely more. NYC hyperinsanity and NYC violent blind bigotry are in infinite control now.
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'Strange as it Seems' was a mid-30s series competing with the Ripley brand. It didn't last very long because Ripley was a superior showman, capable of putting together a big variety show. But all of its surviving episodes are interesting and dramatic.
This episode includes a perfect illustration of NYC tolerance toward non-NYers.
It's a dramatization of Madman Lincoln's attempt to get Robert E Lee to head up the Wall Street Army, just before secession was certain. At that time Lee was a Colonel. Madman Lincoln sent Frank Blair to call on Col Lee.
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My transcription:
Blair: Colonel Lee, civil war looks inevitable. Your state of Virginia is going to secede from the Union. I'm afraid we're going to have to take up arms against the South to preserve the United States.
Lee: I wonder if a union that has to be preserved by swords and bayonets is the right sort of union.
Blair: Unfortunately the sword seems the only way to settle such bitterness, and that's why I've come to you.
Lee: Yes? What can I do?
Blair: As spokesman for [Madman] Lincoln, I offer you the command of the US Army.
Lee: That's a great honor.
Blair: You are the man we need, Lee. A man who is a great leader, a man whose soldiers would die for him.
Lee: You don't know what you're asking.
Blair: I know it's hard to take up arms against your own state, but your country must be greater than your state, Lee.
Lee: I must think this out. Can you let me have a few hours?
Blair: Certainly. and I hope for the sake of the union that you'll remain loyal.
[Music to indicate time passing]
Blair: Why, what's wrong, Col Lee? You look tired.
Lee: I lost ten years of my life last night, Blair.
Blair: But you did finally reach a decision?
Lee: All night long I walked, hoping to God that I could gain help from the stars. There are times when a man can't find an answer in his own heart.
Blair: Don't be afraid to tell me your answer, Lee.
Lee: Blair, I must refuse Lincoln's offer.
Blair: Don't say that!
Lee: I am bitterly opposed to secession. I loathe the idea of civil war. I never approved of slavery. Several years ago I gave my own slaves their freedom. But I can't take up arms against my
own people.
Blair: The northerners are your people too!
Lee: No. In times like this, Blair, my people are my own neighbors. The men whose homes will be ruined. Go back to Lincoln. Tell him that I'm honored by his favor.... but if the union is disrupted and we take up arms against each other, I will remain with MY people, and share their miseries, even unto death. Goodbye, Mr Blair.
Narrator: Strange as it seems, Robert E Lee was offered the leadership of the union army. He refused, and has become the symbol of Southern chivalry and independence.
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I don't know if this was an accurate account of the Blair-Lee meeting, but what's important is the TONE of the script and the words of the narrator. The writers allowed Lee to wonder about "the right sort of union" without turning him into a bloodsucking vampire on the spot.
Neocon Lincoln was violently opposed to all borders and distinct localisms. Like the Ebola virus, and like later neocons from Wilson to Obama, his sole purpose in life was to impose His Own Supreme Will on the rest of the universe, and to destroy the rest of the universe if it dared to resist His Supreme Will. But the New Yorkers who wrote this script were NOT neocons. They showed EMPATHY toward the idea of local differences, and appeared to understand that people may, at least temporarily, prefer their own ways of doing things over the New York way of doing things.
'Strange as it Seems' was a mid-30s series competing with the Ripley brand. It didn't last very long because Ripley was a superior showman, capable of putting together a big variety show. But all of its surviving episodes are interesting and dramatic.
This episode includes a perfect illustration of NYC tolerance toward non-NYers.
It's a dramatization of Madman Lincoln's attempt to get Robert E Lee to head up the Wall Street Army, just before secession was certain. At that time Lee was a Colonel. Madman Lincoln sent Frank Blair to call on Col Lee.
= = = = =
My transcription:
Blair: Colonel Lee, civil war looks inevitable. Your state of Virginia is going to secede from the Union. I'm afraid we're going to have to take up arms against the South to preserve the United States.
Lee: I wonder if a union that has to be preserved by swords and bayonets is the right sort of union.
Blair: Unfortunately the sword seems the only way to settle such bitterness, and that's why I've come to you.
Lee: Yes? What can I do?
Blair: As spokesman for [Madman] Lincoln, I offer you the command of the US Army.
Lee: That's a great honor.
Blair: You are the man we need, Lee. A man who is a great leader, a man whose soldiers would die for him.
Lee: You don't know what you're asking.
Blair: I know it's hard to take up arms against your own state, but your country must be greater than your state, Lee.
Lee: I must think this out. Can you let me have a few hours?
Blair: Certainly. and I hope for the sake of the union that you'll remain loyal.
[Music to indicate time passing]
Blair: Why, what's wrong, Col Lee? You look tired.
Lee: I lost ten years of my life last night, Blair.
Blair: But you did finally reach a decision?
Lee: All night long I walked, hoping to God that I could gain help from the stars. There are times when a man can't find an answer in his own heart.
Blair: Don't be afraid to tell me your answer, Lee.
Lee: Blair, I must refuse Lincoln's offer.
Blair: Don't say that!
Lee: I am bitterly opposed to secession. I loathe the idea of civil war. I never approved of slavery. Several years ago I gave my own slaves their freedom. But I can't take up arms against my
own people.
Blair: The northerners are your people too!
Lee: No. In times like this, Blair, my people are my own neighbors. The men whose homes will be ruined. Go back to Lincoln. Tell him that I'm honored by his favor.... but if the union is disrupted and we take up arms against each other, I will remain with MY people, and share their miseries, even unto death. Goodbye, Mr Blair.
Narrator: Strange as it seems, Robert E Lee was offered the leadership of the union army. He refused, and has become the symbol of Southern chivalry and independence.
= = = = =
I don't know if this was an accurate account of the Blair-Lee meeting, but what's important is the TONE of the script and the words of the narrator. The writers allowed Lee to wonder about "the right sort of union" without turning him into a bloodsucking vampire on the spot.
Neocon Lincoln was violently opposed to all borders and distinct localisms. Like the Ebola virus, and like later neocons from Wilson to Obama, his sole purpose in life was to impose His Own Supreme Will on the rest of the universe, and to destroy the rest of the universe if it dared to resist His Supreme Will. But the New Yorkers who wrote this script were NOT neocons. They showed EMPATHY toward the idea of local differences, and appeared to understand that people may, at least temporarily, prefer their own ways of doing things over the New York way of doing things.Labels: STRONG!, the broken circle
¶ 1:19 AM
