Once upon a time people told stories. Whatever their own experience of life they created a new world, different surroundings, different characters. Their fantasies enriched their lives'.
Down the ages the story telling became more sophisticated, more realistic.
Writers became reporters, telling life as it really was.
None was more powerful than Charles Dickens who depicted the exciting, squalid life of 19th century London. Fiction had merged with reality.
Nowadays, fact and fiction, truth and make-believe, have become indivisible. So realistic, so powerful that we are taken in, permanently suspending our disbelief.
2020 is a perfect example. A year ago we could not have visualised the upheaval, the deadly drama ahead.
Now, we are creating a new world, through fiction.
Via books, television, radio and social media we live a parallel life, adding colour and excitement to our pandemic dulled existence.
Examples? Endless. Parliament in meltdown, division and anger, personal feuds, resignations. The public divided, compliant and antagonistic. The leaders disbelieved and maligned. And, the latest move, the principal character in the unfolding story, is struck again.
The royal story is even richer as a colourful tale.
In reality it seems incredible, fiction, yet millions take The Crown's television version as more relevant and interesting.
The danger is that we may come to disbelieve everything and everyone. We must think clearly and act sensibly, separate fact from faction and fiction.
This must not be a soap opera.
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