(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Truth Is Boring [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-01
Once upon a time, I taught Special Ed in Junior High. I wasn’t qualified, but one of their teachers quit on short notice and I’d been a reliable substitute teacher. I should note that my students weren’t MRs (mentally retarded, in the terminology of the day) but SEMs (socially & emotionally maladjusted.) I should also noted that much of my students’ behavior was baffling, until parents night, after which it made perfect sense.
One day the boys went off to gym class, leaving me with the one girl who wasn’t out with flu that day. So me, the History nerd, started telling her about Eleanor of Aquitaine, who lived a soap opera-worthy life in the 12th century.
Eleanor was the eldest daughter of William, Duke of Aquitaine, which comprised about 1/3 of France. William lost his wife & only son in an epidemic, and became deathly ill himself a few years later. Knowing that his vassals would not respect his 16 year old daughter’s rule, (The Anarchy, a 19 year conflict set off by some English nobles’ refusal to accept Henry I’s daughter Matilda as reigning queen, was still ongoing.) so he asked Louis VI, King of France, to be her guardian. Louis not only agreed, but suggested a marriage between her and his 17 year old son, Louis VII.
William agreed on his deathbed, the marriage was celebrated, and then Louis died while the couple was on their honeymoon. France was now ruled by a couple of teenagers.
“Wait!” my student interrupted, “Did this really happen?”
“Yes!”
“Boring,” she exclaimed.
As an experiment, I replied, “No. I’m making this up.”
“Cool,”she said. “Tell me more!”
The story continued, with conflicts galore caused by the Amor v Roma cultural differences between the Troubadour south and the then-straightlaced Parisians. Periodically, she would interrupt, announce her boredom if I said it was true, then delightedly ask to hear more upon being assured that it was bullshit.
The boys came back from gym, and to my everlasting regret, I didn’t ask her why she found truth boring and BS fascinating.
I wonder how much of MAGA is based on this psychological phenomena.
Just in case you want to hear the rest of Eleanor’s story, after 15 years of marriage that produced only two daughters, Louis had the marriage annulled, convinced she was incapable of bearing him an heir. (The official reason was their being 4th cousins, once removed, not 5th cousins as church law mandated..) Within two months, she’d remarried, a handsome young stud named Henry, 14 years her junior, who was not only Duke of Normandy, but also heir to England through his mother, Matilda, (And a 4th cousin, not removed at all.) As wife of the Holy Roman Emperor, Matilda had the military clout to fight the nearest male heir, Stephen, Count of Blois, to a standstill, negotiating her son’s accession to the throne upon Stephen’s death.
Since Eleanor’s domains went with her to her new husband, this power couple now controlled literally half of France. Not to mention a truly staggering act of marital revenge: she bore Henry 8 children, 5 of them sons, the middle of whom was Richard, known as The Lionheart.
There’s lots more, but I’ll let you look it up.
My question remains: is this psychological tendency widespread? Is it the root of MAGA? Any social scientists out there?
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/1/1/2294687/-Truth-Is-Boring?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
