Life Changes, Human Nature Doesn't

I'm a big believer that history does NOT repeat itself. However much people want to compare COVID-19 to past pandemics, it simply isn't the same thing.

Every now and again, however, I am reminded that human nature doesn't change all that much. (I'm still not going to talk about COVID-19 though I may in a later post.)

I am rereading Emma Lathen's excellent mystery novels and was highly amused by the following from Come to Dust.

A member of the Admissions Committee of an Ivy League-type college disappears, taking with him documents linked to admissions. Consequently, the high school applicants will have to go through the admissions process again (more or less). This is bound to cause all kinds of angst!

My version of Thatcher--up to date!

A sociologist writes an article, arguing that to help their teenage children in these trying times...

"parents should be unfailingly reasonable, totally unbiased, open to cultural innovation, and undismayed by personal hostility--"

The narrator, who is truly the voice of Thatcher, continues blandly--

"--without [the sociologist] explaining how this was supposed to prepare the young for a world that could be relied upon to display none of these characteristics."

The book was written in 1968.