Why I suspect Jenny Geddes is a myth

Jenny Geddes – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Some doubt her existence. I don’t have any reason to do so.

But she is invoked as a symbol of “grass-roots” resistance–a commoner taking matters into her own hands and speaking truth to power (or speaking an abdomen-torture curse). Even if she did all that, I’m still skeptical of the story.

The reason why Geddes is remembered (assuming she’s not made up) is that there were powerful rulers who wanted to resist and defeat English policy in Scotland. Otherwise she just would have been ejected, punished, and forgotten.

But even more, if she did indeed throw the stool in Church, is it likely she was ignorant of simmering resistance among her superiors? I don’t think so.

People talk a lot about the dangers of rebellion “from below” but they don’t want to face the truth: it almost never happens.

No, what happens is that powerful leaders use false witnesses (genuinely following them in a sense) and mob action to get what they want, hiding behind the myth of the popular revolt.

The public is taking its cues from the leadership; not the other way around. Even Eve was being manipulated by Adam. The Bush Administration was leaking classified documents to hurt its enemies long before Assange got into it. And lay people attack pastors after they see their own pastors doing it.

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