The Pope's no to the People's yes. The tide of British History. (4)

                   The Gout- (James Gillray 1799.)   Rich Man's Disease.

    The constancy of change is the only thing in the universe that never changes. Yet, ever since our ancestors gained pleasure from stability, human beings have attempted to keep things the same when things are going well.
     It was only natural then, that the ruling class of Britain at the beginning of the 19th Century should attempt to sand-bag their castles against the inevitable rising tide of communication. Very quickly, powers realised that in a more open society you couldn't control the information so it was necessary to control the ideas. 
    Even at this early date, those making moves to secure a stable empire realised the need for good P.R., and  the century opened with a new country  called The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.  Irish opinion was, of course, not sought at all in the push for this new branding.
    By the start of the 19th Century Britain's tree of knowledge had grown  huge and entangled. There would be stunted growth as well as great advances. Darkness and light.
    The fruits of advanced military technology would result in a great naval victory at Trafalgar in 1805. This was a result that would truly allow Britannia to rule the waves. However, the seduction of sheer power would overwhelm the simple fact that victory had also been won with a fresh idea: Nelson's unorthodox tactics allowed the fleet to triumph. Novel ideas can often be of great value, but novel ideas can also be seen to be an enemy of the State. The fresh and fascinating fruit that a more communicative working class would produce during this century were not so eagerly harvested by the power elite.
    Certainly some good ideas blossomed in the available light.  In 1807 the Slave Trade Act would be passed as one simple fruit of Britain's tree of knowledge turned out to be Christians actually behaving like Christians. The new information of new religious groups like evangelistic protestants and Quakers pushed the a new idea whose time had come: slavery was quite simply wrong.
   In 1813, some serious business of empire would commence with Britain and Russia battling for the control of central Asia. In public relations terms, this would become known as The Great Game, which conjures proud images of a gentlemanly game of Rugby played in the right spirit. As usual, no questions were asked of the Afghans, no opinions sought from the lowly Tommy. Take your orders. Obey the rules. Do not question the gods.
                                                
  

                             Prometheus- possibly regretting his sensible drinking.

           Art and literature responded to the new flow of information and idea at the turn of the century with Romanticism, a movement typified by its reaction to increasing urbanisation and industrialisation with a fervent desire to describe and explain nature while raising her on high.
          In response to the increasing march of science,  Mary Shelley produced Frankenstein in 1818.  This was a tale of a science so powerful it takes on the attributes of God. The alternative title for this story was The Modern Prometheus. This should not be confused with the modern Prometheus,  as Mary Shelley's story contains torrents of information and ideas that are strong enough to be influencing the ebb and flow of communication some 200 years later; whilst the other is a craven  attempt to re-animate a dead cash-cow, and turns into an object lesson in the triumph of Mammon over art (and nature.)*

          The pace of change and invention continued as new situations needed new responses. Increasing need for public transport  saw the first public railway in 1825, and the massive growth of London ensured the first modern police force was established by Robert Peel in 1829.
          Britain's tree of knowledge was at its prime, yet, amidst the rich fruits of the empire there remained the traditional choking weeds of anti-communication. Those with wealth and power attempted to fix a system that of  allowed them to profit to the detriment of others. But because of the fruit the tree of knowledge, the poor and the under-dogs had new ideas and were not simply going to lie down and accept a life that was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.
            In 1830, British agricultural labourers working in the heart of the greatest empire on earth were described in parliament as being "more abject than any race in Europe." Naturally, the workers started to revolt, resulting in the Swing Riots. This agricultural unrest would encourage campaigns of reform amongst members of parliament. The old school would be ably represented by the Duke of Wellington, who exclaimed that the constitution of the country worked perfectly and that while he was in office he would resist any efforts at reform. The great communicative wash of recent British history was clearly lost on the man, and the Duke of Wellington ironically turned out to be too big for his boots. The next Prime Minister would be Earl Grey,  (in what could be described as a victory for the Tea Party.) **
       1832 saw the Reform Act, as urbanisation and the increase of property-holders forced democratic reforms on those who already held power. The right to vote increased to one-in-six male adults. The idea that everybody had the right to vote was still some way in the future.
      The economic downturn caused by the end of The Napoleonic Wars had caused widespread unemployment. In 1834 there was the New Poor Law, which overhauled the system of relief, making the workhouse the last stop of a poor person's downward spiral. Charles Dickens would react to this with Oliver Twist, which showed the miserable life of an orphan in this system. It would not be until the middle of the next century that the country would experience a decent welfare state.

      In 1837,The year before the publication of Oliver Twist, the crown of the richest nation in the world passed to Queen Victoria. Two years later, Britain was battering down the door to China with its desire to ensure the market for its highly profitable drugs trade.

      But even as the technological advantages of Britain's tree of knowledge allowed it to act like the world's biggest gangster, fresh branches were curling off in new directions; exotic birds were nesting amongst the foliage, and fantastic creatures that were both ancient and modern at the same time were appearing amongst the roots.

     In 1841 there was the first use of the word dinosaur, and around about the same time   Charles Darwin was busily beginning to sketch his evolutionary theory. New ideas were falling to the ground constantly, and new trees of knowledge were springing from the seeds of these ideas.
    For ten years from 1838 to 1848 the working class movement of Chartism pushed for a fairer and therefore necessarily more communicative society. 1848 also saw the publication of The Communist Manifesto which offered an explanation of the world that a great many people would see value in. Old systems fell to revolution as strong new ideas encouraged action.
     In many places, human beings were communicating with themselves as never before, as questions were being asked of humankind's place in history, of its place in society, of its place in nature itself. People's old ideas of themselves were tossed and broken as the tide of communication crashed in once more.
   In 1856 Neanderthal Man was first identified. With discoveries like this, the simple idea of Adam, that had served for thousands of years, began to be chipped away as information about the human family was slowly teased from the very earth that Adam was said to have been made from.
   In 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species and Adam has never been the same man since. 
Traditionally, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge is considered to be a bad thing.

Traditionally, people practice Female Genital Mutilation.
Traditionally, cultures insist on anti-communication.
Traditionally, "It's tradition!" is not a great explanation of anything.


         Against God's wishes, new information and new ideas were rampant. Everywhere, the sons of Adam were gorging on the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
         In 1863 there was the formation of the International Red Cross. In 1865 Gregor Mendel offers a novel explanation of communication across generations with his Laws of Inheritance.
       
         Modernisation also gave rise to new leisure activities , new pleasures. The tide of British history tossed up Association Football in 1863, and British sailors would take it around the world.  The first international football match between England and Scotland took place in 1872. (It should be noted for those to whom the game holds no appeal that this match ended 0-0.)



                                                
             As the century came to a close, the British Empire continued to rule the world. Clearly, there was not, despite certain British protestations, anything particular in the British DNA to explain how the country came to be the Lord of all the Earth. Brittannia had surfed the biggest wave of communication that the world had yet seen, and had had the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time. However, with the constant             inundation of new cultural waves, a tangible unease broke the surface.
        With the old assurances of paradise now lost especially now God was dead,  questions of human identity arose as never before. Where we a creature such as Jekyll and Hyde? How could we explain the brutal serial killing of Jack the Ripper?
        Alongside these thoughts, the culture of the super-power has dreams of being over-run by those that it has no right to hold dominion over. Invasion Literature inevitably bubbled up from the swamp of the popular imagination as people fretted over the foreign threat.
    These ideas of war from without would be taken to their ultimate description by H.G. Wells when Mars himself wreaks havoc upon Britain in War of the Worlds.
       The constant threat of Johnny Foreigner also coalesced into the terrifying figure of a man from the Carpathians who not only came over here and slept with our women, but ate them too.
       In the style of Gillray's The Gout,  Dracula fell upon London, where he was happy to prey amongst "the teeming millions" available in the modern wealthy metropolis.
       Perhaps the Rich Man's Desease is most simply fear.      
      
      With both Martians and Vampires circling as the 19th Century slipped away, Britain would actually not have to sweat much longer. For the new century would be American. as the old country would be forced to pass the crown of empire to its son and heir: the New England.
    The 20th Century would also see much more of man's steady ascension of Olympus and the consequential and inevitable growth of the power of Frankenstein.
    Titans would charge across Atlantis on the latest waves of technology and communication. Ares would take knowledge of the smallest of things to produce the most massive terrors of war.
    And Prometheus' ancient gift of fire would allow human beings to ascend to the very heavens themselves in a chariot of Apollo. 
      

                       




* Having said all this, of course there are people who will get very useful ideas from Prometheus. This serves to prove that all communication is INFO ----------> IDEA.

** But probably shouldn't be.