Time and chance happeneth to them all

Fyrr í dag varð mér aftur hugsað til frábæru ritgerðar Orwells, "Politics and the English Language." Þar vitnar hann í glæsilega línu úr King James biblíuþýðingunni frá 17. öld:

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, not the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Ótrúlega flott enska sem Orwell þýðir síðan yfir á hræðilegu "nútímaensku" síns tíma:

Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

Nákvæmlega sama þróun er því miður skýr í íslensku hins opinbera á okkar dögum.