Political Advice From Rudyard Kipling

A bit off topic, but I have been writing a series on the poetry of Rudyard Kipling and I thought some of our Almost Chosen People readers might wish to view the results.  This will be the first in an on-going series.  Kipling’s poems have always been at least as popular in this country as in Great Britian, so perhaps it is not so off topic as it might appear at first glance.

I have always been a great fan of the poetry of Kipling.  It is fun to recite and often has a fair amount of wisdom.  Too often Kipling is simply written off as a pro-imperialist poet and relegated to the past along with the British Empire.  He was certainly a loyal Brit and an advocate of the Empire, but there was much more to him than that.  Refusing honor after honor, including being poet laureate of Great Britain, he always retained his independence to give loving criticism to his country.  For example, in 1897 at the time of the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria, he wrote the poem Recessional which envisioned a time when Great Britain would have lost its Empire and its power:

Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet.
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Kipling realized that power was never an end itself and that Great Britain would be judged by God and History not by how much power it amassed, but by what the British did with their power.

 First up in this series which will analyze the poetry of Kipling is a fairly obscure poem but one which I think has valuable lessons for politicians.  The poem was written in 1911 and is entitled Norman and Saxon:

CivAnon: There is Help

With the arrival of Civilization V,

 nirvana for historical computer strategy gamers like me, some organization has to exist to aid those who become helplessly addicted to it.  Some of the signs of addiction: you sit down on Friday night at 10:00 PM to play a few turns, and the next thing you know it is 3:00 AM…Monday morning;  your family begins to post photographs of you around town on billboards;  a tornado is headed toward your home and you instantly seize the Civ V game box and race into the basement;  your spouse files a lawsuit against Firaxis, the company behind Civ V, for alienation of affections;  you think seriously about naming your next child Sid Meier, reasoning that she will grow to love it.

Sequoyah and His Talking Leaves

Indians were long fascinated by the “talking leaves” of the white settlers which allowed them to communicate across vast distances.  In 1821, Sequoyah, known also by the English name of George Guess or Gist, gave to the Cherokees their own talking leaves.  Completely self-taught, a silver-smith by trade, he devised an 86 letter alphabet representing each syllable in the Cherokee language.  Within a few years, the Cherokee Phoenix, the first Indian newspaper,  was being published using Sequoyah’s alphabet.  Sequoyah, through perseverance, overcame initial resistance, and his alphabet was adopted by the various branches of the Cherokee people and rescued the Cherokee language from the oblivion that awaited so many Indian tongues.

Civilization V is Here

 One of my hobbies, besides writing blog posts and annoying people for fun and profit, is the playing of rather elaborate strategy games.  I began playing these games circa 1971 when I wheedled a copy of Luftwaffe from my parents for Christmas that year.  The next year for Christmas I received a copy of Panzerblitz, and I have been playing and collecting strategy games since that time.

My wife and I acquired our first computer in 1987, a commodore 64.  Since that time almost all of my playing of strategy games has been on the computer.  Christmas Eve 1991 was a memorable one in the McClarey household.  It was the first Christmas Eve we spent with our newborn twin sons, and our copy of the computer strategy game Civilization arrived in the mail.

In between playing with our infants and introducing them to the joys of Christmas, we took turns charting the courses of society through 6,000 years of history.  For a young married couple fascinated by history, it was the ideal Christmas present.

The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid

I think it likely that more rubbish has been written about Jesse James than any other minor figure in American history.  Films, books, comic books, plays, all have celebrated this cold blooded murderer and bandit.  Portrayed as a robin hood, stealing from the rich for the poor, or an upholder of chivalry and Southern honor in post Civil War Missouri, James was none of these things,but rather a professional thief who found it convenient to try to gain public sympathy through sensationalist press coverage in Missouri and around the nation.

John Adams Meets King George III

The meeting of former rebel John Adams and the monarch he denounced as a tyrant is one of the more curious events in American diplomacy.  I am sure that neither man ever expected to meet the other, nor did either look forward to the meeting when it came, but both did their duty for their countries.  Here is John Adams’ report written on June 2, 1785 to Secretary of Foreign Affairs John Jay:

Ben Franklin and the Glass Armonica

It is astonishing the range of the brilliance of Benjamin Franklin.  Perhaps the most charming example of this range is the mechanical Glass Armonica which Franklin invented in 1761.   Genius is a term too often tossed around, but with Franklin his restless intellect, endlessly given to practical innovation, is clearly deserving of the appellation.

A Professional Pirate

Avast maties!  Ye video be here posted in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day!  So swallow ye grog and lay back in yer hammock and think hard on what that landlubber H. L. Mencken said, “”Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”

The First Free State

The beginning of a new series looking at the ending of slavery in the North.  In many states it was a lengthy and convulted process.  Not so in Vermont where the constitution of 1777 abolished slavery outright:

Jerusalem

Something for the weekend.  An offbeat version of Jerusalem.   I think that half madman, half genius William Blake would have appreciated its quirkiness.  Compare and contrast with this more mainstream version.