A New Cryptology

Sir Harry called on the secure line, expressing his delight at my latest piece of analysis. This was so unusual that it warranted some further examination -- his usual response to my stuff was a guttural grunt.

"I am glad you are pleased," I said.  "Dare I ask why?"

"The way you forwarded the information. The Mongolian situation is tricky, and you framed the options for action rather well. We will, as you suggest, let it be for a time. And, I might add, our cryptologists were convinced that you were using a sophisticated coding mechanism. They have yet to break it."

"They won't. There is no code to break."

"And that's the beauty of it. Goodbye."

Sir Harry was like that -- abruptness carried to an art form.

What I had sent went as follows:

In that antique land where the wealth is underground, a choice needs to be made. Who will be selected to mine the wealth? The task will not be easy, a kind of Herculean Augean Stables situation if you will, and no Alpheus River at hand. Two firms are at loggerheads, resembling Scylla and Charybdis, and to enter this Strait of Messina now would be a mistake that could quickly compound into error. For a time, I think, it would be best to eat the Lotus.

Now anyone with a reasonable education can winkle all this out, but currently 'a reasonable education' is more of a chimera. Mythology, History, and knowledge of the great authors of East and West, the context in which Mathematics and Science should operate, has largely disappeared, replaced by a curriculum that tends to downgrade substance and emphasize 'caring'. I mean, Jack Handey had a really Deep Thought when he wrote, "Instead of having 'answers' on a math test, they should just call them 'impressions', and if you got a different 'impression', so what, can't we all be brothers?"

Hence we swim in Lethe, unaware of past knowledge. We really must remember, as the late Robert Jackson, former Director of the Ontario Institute of Education once urged: "It must never be forgotten that the child as learner is not only the centre of the educational system, but the very reason for its existence."

Too true, and a necessary first step.

Let's take others.