The Longest Day (film) Revisited

The Longest Day (film)

June 2019: the remembrance of the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 – the D-Day landings (“D” stands for Day; as “H” in H-Hour (the moment of attack) stands for Hour).

I have been thinking of the 1962 film The Longest Day (henceforth TLD), certainly a very long film, about the invasion. It was supposed to be a faithful representation of principal events, and boasted, as military consultants, a long list actual participants  (the distance between event and film was only 18 years).

Balletic Prowess

Balletic Prowess

There are some sports in which any participant (under certain fairly wide parameters) can achieve sublimity, if only once, and that fleetingly. 

Take a middle-aged, fundamentally unfit, park footballer, who, by happy coincidence of many factors of time and physics, and none to do with his skill, apart from an ability to swing a leg, hits a dipping 30-yard volley into the goal. A feat he’ll never repeat, but always remember. Or a weekend tennis player, whose flailing and hopeless lunge at the ball somehow produces the perfect fizzing topspin lob, landing on the baseline with utter untrievability behind her opponent.

The Illusion of Free Will - Hold it Fast

The Illusion of Free Will – Hold it Fast

We need to exercise our free will. What else can we do? It’s determined….

I’ve reached the conclusion, partly out of boredom, partly out of frustration with the pointlessness of the traditional debate, that the concept of “free will”, so long clung to, can be let go without much damage to our sense of self, but with implications, very probably beneficial, for criminal justice systems.