Understanding Perspective : Part 3

This is the final part of my attempt to explain perspective. The complete piece centers around a fictitious scenario but is looked at through the eyes of three different people.

Part 3

The news crew knew something big was imminent. The army had been falling back like crazy all day. At no point had the British Army surrendered a sinlge foot of ground, yet here they were evacuating Manchester. This meant something big, something they didnt want civilians to see.

The reporter had heard of a certain street. On this street the occupants were bravely fighting off the enemy, and any British troops who entered were told to clear off. He had found out that the army were going to clear the street, one way or another.

He found the street with his sat nav, and made his way there hours before the army were due. A house stood empty in the center of the street, and he climbed the stairs to locate a good vantage spot.

He was fighting off sleep when the trucks started to arrive. It looked like half of the army were here, hundreds of soldiers. They dropped from trucks parked along the length of the road, and started knocking on doors. Within minutes civilians were climbing into trucks and the reporter had recorded all of it. From his vantage point, he could see three soldiers banging on a door opposite him. A shadow flitted across a curtained downstairs window just as the soldiers started to crash through the door. He moved to get a clearer shot as the three troopers entered the house. Shouts of Army and we're here to help were drowned out with the mass of trucks.

After a minute or two he could see a soldier run from the house and head for the nearest big green truck. After climbing inside the back he re-emerged carrying a rolled up stretcher and some blue blankets. Inside the house a tall blond haired young man was fighting with one of the soldiers. The reporter could see another one holding a screaming old lady. She looked terrified and the soldier holding her seemed to be being quite rough. The soldier with the stretcher dropped everything he was carrying, and ran back to the house. The young man had managed to get the better of his soldier, and he looked like he might be able to free the old lady. The soldier from the truck saw what was happening and dropped everything he was carrying. He ran for the house and hit the young man in the back of the head. The reporter saw him hit the floor, and then they pulled the old lady from the house. The reporter couldn't believe his luck, this would get him an award for sure!

Between them they pushed her into the back of the truck and then returned for the unconscious man. They slammed the tailgate and then two of them climbed into the back. The third man then ran for the front and climbed inside. After a few seconds they pulled away, and then the night became quite again.

This concludes my attempted explanation on perspective. Who was right? Was the old lady right to try and defend her home? was the soldier right in trying to save her life? Was the reporter right on recording it all?

To me it was an unfortunate set of circumstances. The old lady couldn't understand what the soldiers were saying, this led to her hiding and then hysteria took over. The soldiers were forced to wear respirators because of the threat of chemical weapons. The reporter felt it was his duty to report on what was happening. All three pieces had valid points, yet all three made individual mistakes. Eye contact and a lack of weapons would have made a difference, the old lady should not have been left alone, with only a limited understanding of the language.

To me the biggest mistake of all lies with the reporter. He could not possibly know of the impending nuclear explosion, nor could he know of the difficulties between the old lady and the soldiers. Communication was without a doubt the biggest issue here, yet the reporter was preparing to use the recording and write a full dialogue to go with it. This would be wrong.

The reporter saw what he thought was an award winning piece of army brutality, and made no attempt to corroborate his assumptions. The military would probably have let him travel with the troops. in which case he would have been there to witness the events as they happened.

To me this should be a warning for us all, just because something looks a certain way, it all depends on from whose perspective you judge it.

Part 1 : http://dadibobs.hubpages.com/hub/Perspective-Part-1-a-Fiction

Part 2 : http://dadibobs.hubpages.com/hub/Understaning-Perspective-Part-2