They are called fictions. According to Wikipedia it is called «the classification of any story that originates in fiction and thus is not based on history or fact. Η fiction can be expressed in a variety of media, including writing, television programmes, films.» Fiction is therefore also a series we watched on NETFIX, «Anatomy of a Scandal» with the excellent Sienna Mieller. I repeat that it comes from the imagination...

There, a group of rich kids (nicknamed «prodigals»), classmates at a school of similar «stature», climb to power with the British conservatives, the «Tories». In the main protagonists, one is prime minister, the other is a minister. They are linked by a secret that could ruin the careers of both (we don't give details, we don't «spoil», as they say, so watch the show). So they support each other.

According to the fiction (because that doesn't really happen...), they've been trained to lie since they were children. They learned it from their parents and it was a normal thing. Of course, they are also highly competent, being educated in the best schools. They also have an ingrained belief: They believe that no one says «no» to them! Even when the minister is accused by his co-worker (and former mistress) of raping her, he denies it by claiming it was «consensual». At first you think the minister can't lie, too. He believes it himself that his ex-lover didn't say «no» to him, but even if she did, she meant «yes»! Besides, Whitehouse (that's the minister's last name) always wins, they learn that from a young age, they teach that to their children... Men are «macho» (but in a sophisticated way), women are vulnerable...

At the trial the minister is unanimously acquitted (this is not fictional, because ministers are rarely tried). But there is the divine trial and eventually the guilty secret is revealed (again, I'm not revealing it for you to see).

This fiction (which has nothing to do with reality, I repeat) refers to the anatomy of a scandal, but in reality it is a dissection of a system of power that reproduces and protects each other.

In Great Britain this series was the subject of controversy because some «saw» in it the intention to morally damage the Tory government with Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. We don't believe this, because stories about children from good families, who attend good schools and climb to office by supporting each other, simply belong to the realm of fantasy, fiction, and have nothing to do with reality...

By Yannis Koronaiou