Tuesday, May 07, 2019
Constants and variables 129, deluge edition
Hix enjoyed debunking Shared Lies, especially Shared Lies about the "romance" and "glamour" of wars and revolutions. This wasn't always easy. Among the 200 items in the book, here's the only one where Hix talks personally about his own experience:
George Washington was not the first president of the United States; he was the eighth. The United States was formed under the Articles of Confederation, and John Hanson of Maryland was named "President of the United States in Congress Assembled", in 1781 while Washington was still in command of the revolutionary forces. Six others were given that same title before Washington was duly elected. These facts are not entirely unknown, but when I printed the combined statement that Washington was the eighth president and was born on Feb 11, it started a deluge of letters, telegrams, and telephone calls that fairly swamped the Strange as it Seems studio. Editors of the various papers in which the feature appears were wiring and telephoning to obtain proof of the statements, so that they might not lay themselves liable to a charge of printing false statements. Coming down to the office the day after the appearance of this cartoon, I found my desk literally buried under mail. All during that week postmen kept returning to the office with armfuls of letters, the burden of which was that the author should consult an alienist. [psychiatrist in today's dollars]In fact Washington was more like the 14th president, depending on how you count duplicates. He was the first ruler under the globalist constitution. The original localist arrangement had to be discarded because it didn't give total control to NYC. The first 13 presidents are Unpersons, and the original country is an Uncountry. Anyone who doubts the enumeration is still invited to consult a shrink or take his meds. The only difference is the editors who desperately wanted to obtain proof of the difficult fact. Modern editors don't know what a fact is. Modern editors simply form a lynching party to liquidate the Unthink.
Labels: Constants and Variables, Shared Lie
¶ 4:59 PM
