A piece of whimsy....

[alfreda89]

I think this whimsical snippet comes from writer Ken McLeod, via the blog Making Light -- I like the idea of European myth:

This is Europe. We took it from nobody; we won it from the bare soil that the ice left. The bones of our ancestors, and the stones of their works, are everywhere. Our liberties were won in wars and revolutions so terrible that we do not fear our governors: they fear us. Our children giggle and eat ice-cream in the palaces of past rulers. We snap our fingers at kings. We laugh at popes.

Whether you agree or not, it's thoughtful.

Comments

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Depends on who's "we." If his name is any indication, he's a lot of waves of invasion overlapping; hard to say if he goes back to the ur-people. I suppose there may be a pocket of them somewhere. Outer Hebrides? Basque country?

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Well, now, I did think of that -- were the Picts displaced by the Kelts, etc. etc. -- but there's a dollop of truth and a dollop of poor memory heading toward myth. As much as historians say that the hotheads went to America and the settled people who approved of the status quo stayed behind, both Italy and France don't seem to be able to keep a government in power for more than a few years. Unlike the French Revolution, they generally don't cut off anyone's head after it's all over.

(They have been known to kill soccer players for blowing the world cup, however . . ..)

And the Basques or Cornish or Hebrides are good places to hide!

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I meant that those parts of the world are good places to hide. Don't think we're hiding inside people -- yet.