Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

By Rudyard Kipling

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!

13 comments:

PolyKahr said...

Mike,

Rudyard Kipling wrote this while yet the sun never set on the British Empire. But we never learn.

God bless,
PolyKahrS

Backwoods Engineer said...

This poem is also in Glenn Beck's novel, "The Overton Window". When the novel first came out, Beck ran a commercial with a narrator reciting the poem in a sinister way. The media, most notably Politico, Newsweek, and Media Matters, criticized the poem before they hit Google and found our it was from Kipling. It was another one of those moments when the media showed exactly what kind of ignorant asses they are.

Praying for you, Mike. Appreciate all your doing to challenge this illegitimate and un-Constitutional government.

Rhodes said...

Kipling at his clearest.
Oh has Britannia fallen...

hkgonra said...

I love this, Glenn Beck introduced me to it a few years ago , glad to see others catching on.

Anonymous said...

Didn't he just get it? Could have been written yesterday or today. Truth is timeless.

Anonymous said...

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

--All Along the Watchtower, Bob Dylan

To the casual view, nothing is new
but a fierce storm has begun to form.

MALTHUS

1NCCCH said...

Excellent and very timely post Mike! Would that we had more citizens who's lives were informed by the virtues extolled in the "Copybook Headings". Instead what we see are selfish thugs informed by "entitlement" programs, who will riot at the thought of losing the public teat, or the shallowly self-indulgent who will voluntarily submit to their own demise. Neil Postman was right, see "Amusing Ourselves to Death, Public discourse in the Age of Show Business." Huxley is far more likely than Orwell. Keep up the good fight! III%...

Anonymous said...

Errata: the cat is "wild" and "two riders" pictures a race, so the meaning should actually be "a wild, racing storm has begun to form." :^(

In any case, The Gods of the Copybook Headings are about to exact their revenge.

MALTHUS

CorbinKale said...

It never gets old.

Bernanke, confused as to why the previous QE cash infusions didn't work, contemplates another.

...wabbling back to the fire.

Tvarisch said...

Another good one is "Arithmetic on the Frontier".

Anonymous said...

That is my favorite, it's scary it was written in 1917 and is just as true today...

Tvarisch said...

Another good poem of his is "Arithmetic on the Frontier".

kdzu said...

Rudy always was ahead of his time.