9.29.2026 – through a glass darkly

through a glass darkly
unreliability
of eyewitnesses

There is this thing called the Rashomon Effect.

According to the Wikipedia: The Rashomon effect is the phenomenon of the unreliability of eyewitnesses. The effect is named after Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 Japanese film Rashomon, which itself is based on Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story “In a Grove”, in which a murder is described in four contradictory ways by four witnesses. It has been used as a storytelling and writing method in cinema in which an event is given contradictory interpretations or descriptions by the individuals involved, thereby providing different perspectives and points of view of the same incident.

An event is given contradictory interpretations or descriptions by the individuals involved, thereby providing different perspectives and points of view of the same incident.

This is a photo a friend of mine posted on Facebook of the end of last weekend’s Michigan-Iowa football game.

That the photo is of the game is incidental, as is the outcome of game (an outcome I am used to – they wouldn’t be the Amazin’ Blues if they didn’t break your heart) but look at the people looking not at the game, but at their devices.

They will have there own personal proof of being there at something they didn’t watch because they were watching their phones.

They are eyewitnesses to history, yet their proof if being an eyewitness proves they took their eye off history.

I was at several moments worth remembering in Michigan Stadium.

Anthony Carter into the endzone with no time on the clock to beat Indiana.

Desmond Howard flying 20 yards into the end zone to win the Heisman Trophy.

All remembered WITH ADVANTAGES as Mr. Shakespeare would say and without the need for a device.

In one of the last books about Queen Elizabeth II, a book about her travels around the world, she was asked what changed the most in her exerience.

The Queen responded along the line that she used to see people, now all she saw were … little black boxes.

And I put it to you that even with the scene recorded and safely in your hand … any event is given contradictory interpretations or descriptions by the individuals involved, thereby providing different perspectives and points of view of the same incident.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose inded.