Everyone knows the story of Robin Hood, the man who stole from the rich to give to the poor, or, if you're more familiar with the tale, the man who stole tax money back from the government when they were oppressing the people. This story is romanticized all over the world, in many forms. Nottingham and Sherwood Forest are popular tourist destinations. Many, many children grow up with Robin Hood as their hero. And most people don't think too much about it. They love Robin Hood, they're familiar with the tales, and they move on with their day.
Robin Hood, if he ever existed, is said to have had his heyday during the reign of King Richard while he was off fighting in one of the Crusades and his brother, Prince John, had taken the throne. Now, I've always wondered why so many people like Robin Hood so much, and I think a lot of it boils down to one thing. In the adaptations we've seen and read, whether the main antagonist is the Sheriff of Nottingham or Prince John himself, the bad guy is always the government. The hero out sticking up for the people and fighting the evil government is a picture that will always resonate with people. But one day I was reading history about the Middle Ages, in a section dealing with England specifically, and something stuck out to me.
Most people probably don't know the end of the Robin Hood story. In short, it is this: King Richard I, the Lionheart, returned to England from the Crusades, appeasing the people angry at Prince John. King Richard I died without an heir and the throne passed to his brother John, who was just as awful as ever. Eventually, the people couldn't take his oppression anymore and forced him to sign a treaty or charter protecting the rights of the people of England. This treaty was called the Magna Carta, and without it, America wouldn't be a free country today. But most people don't know about that.
To the average person, the Magna Carta is just a name they know from history or social studies. But Robin Hood...they've probably seen multiple movies about him, and, even if he isn't their childhood hero, will remember him with feeling as the man who "stole from the rich to give to the poor." Honestly, this somewhat disturbs me. But why?
What Robin Hood did for the freedom of the people of England was really nothing. He fought the government, but in the end, it didn't affect what happened to the people. To them, it looked and felt like he was helping them. But Robin Hood's actions did nothing to keep the government from sending out their tax men. His actions did nothing to stop John's oppressive acts when he became king or even to set the people in mind for a rebellion. If they had, I suppose we would be more assured of his existence.
What did help the people of England was the Magna Carta, not set in motion by the people near Nottinghamshire, all fired up by the actions of Robin Hood, but by the nobility all over England sick of King John I misusing them. The Magna Carta set up Parliament, protected the rights of the people to not be taxed without their consent (sound familiar? This provision in the Magna Carta was one of the foundations of the American colonies' arguments with England), protected the people from unlawful search and seizure, guaranteed them a trial by their peers in their own county, demanded that the people be compensated when the government exercised imminent domain, set up uniform weights and measures throughout the country, and many other things, quite a few of which set the foundation for the birth of America and would be written into our own Constitution. So why is Robin Hood a romanticized legend and the Magna Carta is just a boring event in history?
This phenomenon is not relegated to Robin Hood and Merrie Olde England. It is common in today's politics as well. There are people in the state and federal legislatures that appear to be doing a lot for freedom, but, even though their hearts are often in the right place, they are doing nothing good at all and sometimes even hurt the situation. And yet they are the ones praised and remembered, and the ones who are actually protecting the rights of the people are forgotten, relegated to a boring part of history, or even mocked and reviled for supposedly destroying the very things they are protecting. So often we praise the ones whose fighting is doing no good and revile the ones who are quietly and peacefully working for freedom. We encourage our people in the government to be more like Robin Hood and less like the people who wrote the Magna Carta. This has caused the ineffectiveness in our government that is infuriating the people.
There was a man who is passed away now known as John Doe. He was in the state legislature. He had very decided opinions and hated oppressive government, but he wasn't very respected in the state legislature. Why? He voted no on every bill. Every. Single. One. True, there was something not so great in all the bills, but he refused to vote for any of them. He was loved and is very fondly remembered today, but he didn't do much to advance freedom in our state. He appeared to do a lot of good, but was truly ineffectual.
In all our life, whether in politics or out of it, let's strive to not be a Robin Hood or a John Doe. To choose to fight in a way that will make a difference instead of a way that will just appear to make a difference, and to not crucify those in our government that aren't fighting a battle over everything and voting no on every bill. Let's try to understand that it is the Peters of Winchester and the Williams of Coventry that make a difference and not the Robin Hoods; the John Adams and Thomas Jeffersons and members of the Continental Congress and not the riotous Sons of Liberty. And in doing so, we will truly change the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment