“Intolerance! Insults! Lynching! It’s getting bad… What’s
happening?” wondered Ravi, carefully folding back the morning’s newspaper.
“’Magnanimous’ is confined to dictionary only and ‘liberal’
is a cuss word today! How do you judge a person so quickly? How do you
determine someone’s ‘character’? Mostly, without even knowing a person… Tell us
Daju...”
Daju (the know-all –
for introduction, please see ‘Beyond The Crash!’ Or ‘The Ubiquitous Potato’)
sighed, “Reminds me of King Canute… The Danish King and great warrior, who
conquered parts of Europe and even ruled England from 1016… for close to two
decades. His is one story how a person can be interpreted differently...”
“And what was that?” I was eager to know more since the name
rang a bell.
“King Canute’s achievements are well chronicled in various English
texts. There is a famous poem too by William Makepeace Thackeray – a great
novelist in the Victorian Age – better known for writing ‘Vanity Fair’.
“The rendition goes that despite the fame, the King was
feeling kind of depressed when advancing in age and while walking by the sea,
he complained to his courtiers about feeling it in his bones. His companions,
being the sycophants they were, started comparing him with God thinking it will
please him.
“And to test his own power, King Canute ordered the tide to
turn back which, of course, isn’t possible...
“Now comes the part of judging! Some say Canute was so vain
that he actually believed himself to be omnipotent. Statements like ‘you think
yourself to be King Canute?’ or ‘stop being King Canute’ are popular
expressions of scorn.”
I interrupted, “Now I remember! There is a street play in
his name where he is depicted as a despot and a tyrant.”
“Yes, but you know… William Makepeace Thackeray’s poem ends
saying that the king is dead but sycophants and ‘courtiers’ are still out there.
He says so because there is another belief that when he could not turn the tide
Canute pointed out to his courtiers that a King is mortal and thus possesses
limited powers against God’s eternal powers.”
“The King is dead… Long live the King!”
Daju ignored Babu’s interruption, “That is how you start
believing what you think is right and scorn… loathe… any other school of
thought. Sometimes the faith and trust is so strong that it leads to violence.
There is no rationale, no reason…"
(This post is the musings of Jayanta Bhattacharya. It has
nothing to do with where he works or what he does to earn his bread. In case of
any criticism or suggestion, write to @Jayantab15 on Twitter / Facebook or
jayantab15@gmail.com on email)
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