Flamelillyfox
marching pylons
There is a movie from 1971 called They Might Be Giants. George C. Scott plays an eccentric millionaire who believes he is Sherlock Holmes. His family wants him declared incompetent so they can control his money. They hire a psychologist to examine him. Her name, of course, is Dr. Watson and she accompanies him as he wanders around investigating a case that doesn’t exist.
At one point they are in the countryside in the evening. Tall towers, much like these, stride off in the distance. Scott notes that they look like giants. Watson says, “You’re just like Don Quixote. You think that everything is always something else.” Scott replies, “Well, he had a point. Of course he carried it a bit too far. He thought that every windmill was a giant. That’s insane. But thinking that they might be, well… All the best minds used to think the world was flat. But what if it isn’t? It might be round. And bread mold might be medicine. If we never looked at things and thought of what might be, why we’d all still be out there in the tall grass with the apes.”
Technological progress inflicts these eyesores on us as part of the attempt to keep us out of the tall grass. Technology will also eventually find a way to eliminate them. Until then, we’re fortunate to have people who look at these towers and see giants. We’re fortunate to have people who are able to make us see giants. That also keeps us out of the tall grass.
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