Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

The Latin phrase mortuis nihil nisi bonum means ‘Of the dead, say nothing but good’. It is socially frowned upon to speak ill of the dead, as they are unable to justify themselves. Of course, this is an absurd aphorism. If Adolf Hitler had a gravestone should we write that “Adolf –wasn’t-all-bad”? Like  some mothers of rapists and murderers should we say that “He was really a good boy at heart”?⁹ However, many of my memories here are about people who are either very old or deceased. But as mentioned, memories are subjective.

Of course, I’m exaggerating the point here. I didn’t have any ‘Adolfs’ in my boyhood life, just minor offenders. I promised myself as a child to visit these ‘wrongdoers of my childhood’ when I become an adult — that is, teachers and members of my family — and perhaps abuse them in the same way they had abused me. That is, ‘an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth’¹⁰.

Vengeance for Abuse

This was mostly in my imagination. I am perhaps over-dramatizing my boyhood here. There are of course thousands and perhaps millions of children that have been, and still are, severely abused by their families, as well as by state and religious institutions. Some of these children have sued the various institutions and agencies when they became adults¹¹.

It is perhaps ‘too late in the day’ to wreak vengeance on teachers and members of my family along the lines of an ‘eye for an eye’. However, one can also say that it is ‘never too late’; it is rather the fact I can’t be bothered expending so much energy on this.

Yet, it is not unthinkable that I could use some of my funds, perhaps in collaboration with others, to launch a law suit against the British government. This is something I have not researched, but as far as I know the children of the twentieth century in Britain that were subjected to corporal punishment have not received any recompense. Moreover, this is not something restricted to the twentieth century, but an ongoing problem, that is, the abuse of children in schools. When one reads various accounts of abuse it is always localised to a particular school or community; but surely this is a governmental responsibility that permits the abuse of children in schools.

What I am referring to here is the recent strip searching of children in British schools by the police.¹² Similarly, regarding the repeated mass murders of children in American schools, the American government is never held accountable. This is surely where the ‘buck stops’, that is, surely it is the national governments that are the final line of accountability?

Ignoring the Latin Phrase

As mentioned, most of my childhood ‘abusers’ are already very old or deceased. To come to the point, in these “Recollections”, I will ignore the aphorism, mortuis nihil nisi bonum, and ‘punish’ those that ‘abused’ me with words.

However, to reiterate what I said above, I hardly had a traumatic childhood, so this ‘verbal revenge’ will be of a relatively mild and sardonic nature. There is an irony here. My greatest crime as a boy was garrulity. The main principle of British education for children in the post-war period was ‘Children Should Be Seen and Not Heard.’  Children should only listen, and not speak. This is the same attitude as expressed by Russia’s regime towards their citizens (2022). As a boy, I could be caned for talking. Russian citizens who ‘talk’ risk being assassinated, poisoned or cast in jail for several years.¹³