Friday, February the 20th, 2004
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An item in yesterday's Guardian mentioned the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA). Let us consider the wonderful mysticism of that title. First, it is “Royal”, imbued with a lordly, monarchist ethos far above the common herd of humankind. Then, it is a “Society”, a fraternity or sorority one supposes, an esoteric band of adepts, sworn together by bonds of ritual secrecy. And on what purpose are they bent, these shadowy yet somehow noble figures? Nothing less than the “Prevention of Accidents”! If one thinks of an accident as an Act of God, which must surely be a common definition, then here we have a group dedicated to averting or undoing the whims of the Almighty. Whether that is heroic or abominable, it is incontrovertibly blasphemous. And so we find, lurking behind the innocuous “ROSPA”, that myth-shrouded medieval organisation the Mystical Order of Divine Saboteurs.