The story of King Canute holding back the tide is always told incorrectly. The common telling is that King Canute (995-1035AD), the Viking king of England, Denmark and Sweden, in a vainglorius exercise of royal power attempted to hold back the tide. Of course, he failed. However, the real story is the complete inverse of the legend. Canute's courtiers and flatterers, ever eager to laud the great king's power, proclaimed for him the power to command nature, the seas and the skies. Canute may have been a powerful temporal lord, but he recognised the limits of his power. He had his throne set on the beach, commanded the waters to recede and allowed the tide to wash over him.
Our temporal lords, their courtiers and flatterers, have come to believe that they have the power to command nature. They can use the magical power of 'science' can stop the virus, cheat death. Their efforts have proved as ineffectual as the setting of Canute's throne on the beach. The tide is now turning and our lords are exposed, sitting on their thrones with their feet in the mud. They may pretend like their feet are dry and they aren't standing there with their dicks in their hands, but we can all see it. And there will be a reckoning.
This impassioned and articulate speech by Neil Pearson, historian, TV presenter and columnist for GB News, says it all
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