Synchronicity

A reader writes: “Lol, look at that introduction! Pat must be reading you, sort of like the Frum thing.”

He was referring to an article by Patrick Buchanan at WorldNetDaily which begins, “Again the line of Hamlet comes to mind: ‘When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.’” I had recently posted a blog entry using that same line in the title, and the reader thought it looked as if Buchanan had gotten the idea from me. In fact, my blog entry was posted at 4:44 p.m. Eastern time on April 4, and Buchanan’s WND article was posted at 1 a.m. Eastern time April 4. Two different writers, writing on two unrelated subjects on the same day (Buchanan on Iraq, me on immigration), thought of the same line from Shakespeare as the way to frame their respective arguments. Funny.

A reader writes:

Your comment about Shakespeare and Mr. Buchanan is silly. Did you not notice that he used the phrase, “Again the Shakespeare quote comes to mind?” Again, as in: I’ve used this quote before.

He uses it a lot, e.g. in this October 2005 column, and this June 2002 column. It’s a pretty well known quote. Half-accusing Buchanan of being inspired by you makes you look silly.

My reply:

But I didn’t accuse him or half-accuse him of anything like that. A reader thought this was the case. I pointed out to him that it wasn’t true, since Buchanan’s column was published 16 hours before mine, but that it was nevertheless intriguing, a demonstration of the Jungian phenomenon of synchronicity, that two articles written on the same day on different subjects prominently featured the same Shakespeare quote. That’s why I posted the exchange. Far from trafficking in accusations of copying, I was showing how such accusations can be wrong.

Also, I wasn’t aware that the quote was so well known, and that Buchanan has used it before.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 05, 2006 04:14 PM | Send