We’re very deep into 3rd episode planning and writing, so the blog gets sent to the high meadow for summer grazing.   I did discover a little 18th century television you might like while you’re waiting for more Courage.  It’s called Garrow’s Law and it tells the “true story [of] William Garrow, who acted as counsel for the accused, introducing the concept of ‘innocent until proved guilty’ at London’s Old Bailey.”

Like most BBC period pieces, it’s pretty lush on the art direction front, with loving attention to wigs, wardrobe, the look of 18th century books and documents, and the routine of the trial, complete with court attendants gracing the room in the early morning with what looked like aromatic censers.   For 18th century addicts, (and those looking for the 18th century viewing market) the good news is that they have completed 3 seasons!

More on this later, but with or without knowing it, most post-moderns who write period pieces have a Marxist tincture to their approach, and this is no exception.   Certainly, Garrow is to be commended for helping reform a system that appeared grossly unfair to the accused, particularly those who had no money to pay for a lawyer.  Some defendants had to plead their own case.  Defense attorneys were not privy to crucial details of the prosecution’s case.  The jury was not allowed to deliberate in private, and, if we are to believe the producers, innocence, not guilt had to be proven.

But early on, the dashing, headstrong Garrow reveals a prejudice against corporal and capital punishment, thus allowing the modern audience to celebrate “how far we have evolved,” and that’s where the Marxist tincture gets mixed into the brew.   History is just a series of mutations, like biology, and the strong accidents are selected for, thus we move from hunter-gatherer to feudal-agricultural to democratic-industrial as though history must bow to change as biology bows to Darwin.   Almost any custom of the past that is no longer observed is seen not as a practice to be re-evaluated on its own merits, but something abandoned by the process itself.

On the other hand, stories like “Amazing Grace” and “Courage” (I fancy) take a different approach.   Change is never just assumed, because, certainly some change is good and some is very bad.

But then that puts God in charge, (as the standard) and not the academy.   We can’t have that.  We can’t depend on God for tenure.