In 1837, emissaries from England went ashore in the West Indies to inform Her Majesty's Subjects of the old king William IV's demise, and to advise, as Victoria was their new monarch, the standard greeting would convert to Lord Save the Queen. The chief of the tribe demurred; they would use neither iteration, because, obviously, it didn't work.
This is an advanced race, one which will try out superstition yet weigh it on the hard ground of day. Consider such another tribe.
Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.
- Chapter 6; Light in August
I know these people, remember them. They are the ones who would be earnestly angered were you to tell them the moon has only light reflected of the sun because the Bible says different, or when presented with numbers which prove President Obama has actually lowered taxes and conducted foreign and domestic policy effectively and well. It is not so, they say. It is propaganda from
"The Media," they will tell you. If you think the climate is growing hotter due to human enterprise, they will say,
"You've been brainwashed by that there college."
They remember, an overpowering and incongruous spiritus mundi which is conforting and beyond all hope of reclaim, comparison, reason, or persuasion. They know, they remember.
In my home town, no man or boy ever said or did anything original, or went anywhere for the first time.
It is axiomatic among them that religion is the basis of morality. Yet it is not true, as we see here - those nations or states which most prominently preen their piety are the leaders in general dysfunction. And these citizens are self-sustaining rugged individualists who hate the tentacles of government - although those rightwing havens are the most dependent on federal support, as is shown here.
They remember, and that's their burden ... and, come election time, ours.