Thoughts on Black and White . . . & Color

Once a long time ago, all things were in black and white and various shades of gray or off white, depending whither you were closer to black or white. We lived in a black, white and gray/off white World. Most were happy because they hadn’t thought of the world as being anything else or anything better.

Some people thought that we could do better and realized that there was more to the world than black and white. Others wanted to make the world better by adding color . . . but only for those who could afford it, like themselves. But there were those that wanted a better, more colorful World for everyone because it was a right not a privilege.

There were several bills being written to submit to the House of Representatives and the Senate, but going from black and white to color was a complicated issue. There were both additive and subtractive ranges to contemplate.

The additive ranges were those having to do with light and lighting. The subtractive ranges had to do with paint and ink and printing. Additive primaries were Red, Blue and Green, while the Subtractive primaries were Magenta, Cyan and Yellow.

The conservatives wanted to know how we could make the world colorful for everyone without costing a huge amount of money for the Country. The conservatives wanted to just make it available for those that could afford it. The progressives wanted those that could afford it to pay for everyone. Somewhere in the middle was the answer.

The progressives had the power, but not by much, and a few of the progressives were being financed by the Light Lobby while others were being financed by the Paint Lobby. So, instead of having their constituents at heart, they fought for the point of view of their Patrons. Since there were no real colors yet, these legislators were called the “Gray Pussycats.” The GPs were able to hold up the passage of something that would have been good for almost everyone because the light and paint people wanted to have control and didn’t want to let it go to the people.

Some of the GPs were holding out to make Red, Blue, and Green the primary colors and others were trying to make Magenta, Cyan, and Yellow primary. The two didn’t realize that both the ranges were primary for different purposes, and what is worse they refused to talk to each other and find a common ground.

As time went by and several bills were written up to be presented to various committees, the conservatives decided to halt any advancement of any bill till they had control possibly in a few years. That way they could control how it was done and who would get the advantage of “Color.” Right now all they could do was to put doubt in the minds of the people. They claimed that color would blind the average citizen with its dazzle. They claimed that with color, the elderly would die from a heart attack at the brightness of the hues and that small children would lose several points on their IQ test because they would so be entranced by the various colors that they wouldn’t study their lessons any more.

None of this was true but it put into the argument a pause of plausibility. Some took up this rather unreasonable stance and repeated it enough that it almost became accepted as true.

In the House, there was great debate and they finally came up with a bill that was passed on, to the Senate. There were many flaws in that bill but it had most of what was needed and was accepted as being almost reasonable. Most Representative realized the Senate would take out the part that stated that all additive colors when used together would make everything turn black and that all subtractive colors when put together would make everything turn white, and that is exactly what happened. But . . . more was taken out of the bill.

In the end they decided that everyone had to buy into the color business by supporting color manufacturing in both the additive sector and the subtractive sector. The more money you had the more colors you could see and if you could afford the elective colors you had the advantage of having millions of colors at your disposal.

The Senate finally came up with a bill that was passed out of the Senate and would not cost anything at all to the people . . . but it was very watered down. It came out that the common people that didn’t have much money, didn’t have many colors either. The rich could afford lots of colors but the rich were very few and the average people were hundreds of millions.

The Senate bill was then passed to the House to be reconciled. There came out of that a compromise bill that was much like the one that was passed in the Senate, and it was passed to the President who realized that it wasn’t what he wanted but it was progress. The President then signed it and it became law.

Movies started being shown that were in color. But the common man could only see the primary colors and the few rich could see all the colors. Sunday comics started coming out in color but only the rich could see all the colors.

Sales of color material at first shot up but then started to decline because the common man couldn’t see all the colors. At that point it was determined that it was best for everyone, the lighting industry, the paint industry, the ink industry and all people everywhere, that color be made available to the whole world, without regard to the money involved. Color became a right not a privilege.

New bills were introduced into Congress and the right to color was expanded to be more and more inclusive to more and more people. More colors were invented and immediately released to the public at large.

The lighting and painting sector wasn’t harmed at all. Have you priced good theatrical lamps lately? I just bought some lamps for the local community theatre and had to pay almost $100 for a quality 500-watt lamp. The painting industry doesn’t hurt at all either. Quality exterior paint is over $25 a gallon

That is how color became part of everyday life. All the predictions of great calamity didn’t occur. Our children didn’t become idiots. Our older people aren’t falling dead at the sight of great color and we have progressed.

People have a tendency to be like electricity in that they follow the line of least resistance. Be very careful as to those that want you to follow a line of regression. You can’t reach the future by stepping backward anymore than you can regain you virginity.