Gordon Brown and Rudyard Kipling

Somehow I feel that a Scots Presbyterian Socialist might not have thought it necessary to read the work of an English Imperialist. Or perhaps he would have been drummed out of the Brownies if he'd tried. Pity really, because old Rudyard had the right (Right?) of it:


The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919)

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

........

However, just in case anyone thought 90 or so years on that the current lot (or the Electorate quite soon) had any better idea:

"And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire"

Ho, hum said eggnog

Yes, 'eggy',

Old Rudyard got it right there, how prophetic of him.

Or more to the point, have things really changed so much in the intervening years?

I think not, and probably won't in our lifetimes.

(What we need is a revolution, a peaceful one mind!)

Mike D

Couldn't be bothered reading that lot -too boring. Were you trying to make a point about something?

Frank

Hi


Making a Point!!! These are the most Profound and Prophetic words written ,since the writings of the Bible.

Andy

And the point is...??

andygump wrote:Hi


Making a Point!!! These are the most Profound and Prophetic words written ,since the writings of the Bible.

Andy

As a devout atheist i,m amazed at how many people can be totally brainwashed at so called 'writings' from many hundreds of years ago, by

many dozens of different authors about something that CANNOT be proved, at least our ancestors & the Romans could 'feel, see & touch' their gods!!

Oh dear. I reckon that 'The Gods of the Copybook Headings' takes three minutes to read. Which is not so very long really. Yet it has upset, and quite clearly continues to upset, a substantial number of people. David Lloyd George was one of them. Polemic is powerful but one cannot always expect it to be shooting in the direction one desires.

Tough, said eggnog.

(Now when I helped Moderate (under a very different monicker) an ever so slightly more robust Forum, I'd have settled down on the sofa with the popcorn to watch the fun and games. But this is gentle friendly ASOF and I have no wish to be the first (or would I be?) member to be banned. So I shall hold my tongue. Doesn't stop me being a GOM though.)