Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1951-02-17

young dream was riding for a fall,
so we were not really surprised to
see it smashed in the end, utterly,
and beyond repair.
But this time it was smashed
with a difference. 1t is the man.
ner of the establishment of the
naive native of Dogpatch on this
occasion-as always-mirroring as
it does one of the most poignant,
and one of the most dangerous,
sources of the disillusionment and
Illustration of our age, which is of
significance to us - Dogpatchers
all
After months of death-defying
search for an ideal our hero learns.
specifically, that the new opera
house of 1902 is the old opera
house of 1850: Opera houses
change in AZ years and so do
beautiful showgirls." And, unkind-
est blow of all, so do "bootiful
chorus gals" kneecaps!
Very funny indeed!
Just what is the significance
of the particular manner in which
Lii Abner's dream of an ideal is
mashed by this kneecap adventure?
What, specifically and funda-
mentally, causes his disenchant-
ment this time?
Briefly it is this: In envisioning
the ideal he sought through so
many dangers he failed to take into
account the facts of life: he failed
to consider the date of the knee
cap-that dates make a difference,
that time marches on!
1t is as simple as that.
The implication is broader and
deeper: No idea (no system of
philosophy, religion, economics,
politics, society, or art) which fails
to take into account the basic facts
of human experience can bear any
fruit but establishment, defeat,
and despair.
Lii Abner's error in not dating
his kneecap is fundamental: Per-
haps the most basic of all scientific
facts of human experience, only
partly apprenhendable by our five
senses and therefore not easily re-
membered as an ever-present fac
tor in all our affairs, is the fact
that everything in the universe is
in process of change. Nothing is
ever the same from moment to
moment, however stable some
things may seem. Change is in the
very nature of all things: most ap-
parent of all in living things, most
far reaching, in it's effects, in mans
own ever-changing conception of
nature and of man himself.
Lillian Bustle "the 1876 ID. bundle
of joy" of 1902, of the new" opera
house, and Lillian Bustle the scrub
woman of 1850, of the "old" opera
house, are clearly not "the same
person" certainly as a matrimon-
ial prospect for a teen-age boy of
1850! ..
Of course. 1t is easy enough to
see that. And we laugh gleefully at
the dumb denizen of Dogpatch who
butt his head against this hard fact
of life. We would have known bet
ter.
Or would we? What of Koreans
1850? Are they the same as Ko-
reans 1902? And Chinese 1850?
Are they the same as Chinese
1902? If we thought last June that
"a little police action" in Korea
in 1949 was to be no more than
Richard Harding Davis Tor a Gill
bert and Sullivan) extravaganza
of 1902 or whereabouts, featuring
queerly-dressed natives" as comic
manikins, do we still think so in
January, 1851? Have we yet seen
the light LII Abner paid so much
to see, we too who have paid our
price? Or are we still being true
to "the code of the hills" of Dog
patch-of the Scraggs, among 9TH
ers of its animal-like citizens-let
the price be what If may9