Twelves years ago, during a Social studies class, my (substitute) teacher said something that astonished me. The teacher, a grown woman in either her late thirties or forties, claimed that it was not possible to assassinate King Harald of Norway. She claimed this with sincerity and conviction, to my utter astonishment. It was no simple lie or trick to provoke critical thought; she seriously believed that no one would be able to kill the Norwegian head of state.
Rarely can I recall a moment where I have had any residual respect for an authority figure evaporate that quickly. At once, I asked myself, "What the Hell is she doing as a Social studies teacher?", followed up by disbelief that the person before me was the adult her age would suggest. Previously, her demeanor, arrogance, and apparent lack of intellectual breadth had reduced my recognition of her, but this singular moment was a catalyst, a wake-up call to the possibility of a lacking correlation between age and wisdom/maturity/recognition of reality in some humans. It is to me the most memorable moment of my ungdomsskole (junior high/middle school) years.
A specific lesson from this is that there is a point or should be a point in life where you shed yourself of such childish notions that any singular person is immune to the (possibly arbitrary) homicidal or otherwise violent inclinations of others.
A more general lesson from this is to be aware and wary that otherwise seemingly adult persons may cling to childish or immature notions, notions that compromise their ability to deal with and respond to our shared (material) reality. There is a reality we take part in, a reality that neither respects nor cares about whatever dogma we may be tempted to ascribe onto it (whether religious, political, or philosophical). Maturity is the measurement of well we deal and engage with our shared reality.
1 comment:
This requires some context so you're gonna have to explain this one. Why is it not possible to assassinate this one particular public figure?
Here's the thing about the assassinations of many political figures: they come because they happen at the wrong time. Sirhan Sirhan killed Robert Kennedy the night he was nominated as a presidential candidate, and the very next night he would have received Secret Service protection.
Lots of conspiracy theories go crazy over this, but it's not a question of conspiracy but just plain bad timing.
There are some figures that it is just plain not possible to assassinate anymore. One would be the Pope, constantly protected by uzi-packing Swiss Guards and bulletproof glass. And social security agents are so well trained that, the Reagan assassination attempt notwithstanding it's more or less impossible to kill an American president - something I reassured my mother about when she started getting nervous for Obama, who reminded her of the Kennedys and like most of her generation is haunted by those particularly horrific events.
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