Godwin's Law

I have recently come across Godwin's Law. Basically it predicts that all debates and discussions will eventually  make a Nazi reference; and then, according to this useful Law, the argument is lost. I go to lots of debates and  there is a strong element of truth in Godwin's Law.

I have not felt like blogging about the London wedding last Friday. However, there was one element of the wedding that reminded me of Godwin's Law. It was the moment the Lancaster bombers flew over Buckingham Palace, and everyone seemed to ooh and aah.

Godwin's Law

It might not exactly fit the true meaning of Godwin's Law, but there is a point where every national celebration harks back to the Second World War. We have two young people getting married in 2011, and what do we get, yes, Lancaster bombers that did an effective job in defeating Hitler 70 or more years ago.

Of course we should remember the events of the war against fascism, but why the memory of the murderous bombing campaigns needs to be invoked in a wedding celebration defeats me. Yet even here Godwin's Law has the answer: the unity of purpose displayed by the British people in the war was the one occasion when the people of this country have been truly united; and thus in a search for symbols of British national unity the Lancaster bomber is sadly top of the list. As Godwin's Law would have it, the argument is therefore lost. We really must move on.