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Rajjpuut's Folly: Time We Listened to the "Gods of the Copybook Headings"

Posted by Bob VanDeHey on June 15, 2010 at 2:54am

Four Lessons Larger than Life . . . .

Americans Must Stand for Something

Rather Than Falling for Anything

Though NOT believing in astrology, Ol’ Rajjpuut is a Libra, one of those well-balanced people who occasionally like to throw their weight around. Besides a strong preference for cheeseless six-ingredient pizzas and eating the entire apple except for its stem, he has a particular fetish for learning about things that happened on his birthday, October 16, throughout history. For example:

On October 16, 1859, John Brown made his famous raid of “patriotic treason” on Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia’s federal armory; in 1962, President Kennedy was shown the photos of missile silos in Communist Cuba taken a day earlier; in 1964, Red China got nuclear weapons joining England, France, the USSR and USA; in 1793, the beheading of Marie Antoinette by the guillotine; in 1946, the hanging of the original ten Nazi war criminals after the Nuremberg trials; in 1854, the birth of Oscar Wilde; in 1888, the birth of Eugene O’Neill; in 1919, the first popular speech in Munich by Adolf Hitler transforming him overnight into the de facto leader of the Nazi party in Germany; and also in 1919, the publishing of this poem:

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!

Let’s call that poem by Kipling, “Exhibit A” that the popularity of an idea or plan has no necessary relation to its wisdom or factual basis. Truly we human beings have a nasty tendency to “throw the baby out with washwater” and ignore history’s lessons until we repeat them as Kipling emphasized in his poem above. While it’s true that “a certain foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” the operative words in that saying are “certain” and “foolish” not consistency . . . it is the practice of consistently doing the right things and thinking the right thoughts and operating our businesses and our lives with the right “spirit” that leads to true success. If a vital 7-10% of success and a good life is based upon NOT being trapped by the past; perhaps the other crucial 90-93% is knowing what the hell we’re talking about, because we truly understand our own and all history and are somewhat expert in the areas we’re involved in. The next great lesson for our times is this from Ben Franklin, we’ll call it “Exhibit B”:

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

A third great lesson is this from Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedrich A. Hayek, we’ll consider it “Exhibit C”:

“Man does NOT and canNOT know everything and when he acts as if he does, disaster follows.”

And from the greatest and most tested of our United States’ Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, our “Exhibit D”:

“As I would not be a slave; I would not be a master.”

You well might ask, “What’s all this got to do with the price of Chinese tea?” Exhibit B: When Franklin says, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor safety,” he is talking directly about those who would give away your liberty by promising you that their upcoming “Nanny-State” will take care of you from cradle to grave . . . that is, socialists, communists, various Utopians and all manner of collectivists.

When in Exhibit D: Lincoln says, “As I would not be a slave; I would not be a master,” he is talking about those who would enslave you; would become your master as part of the huge government entity that would have its tentacles reaching into every part of everyone’s lives and emphasizing that both roles master and slave are hideous.

In Kipling’s poem Exhibit A: “The Gods of the Copybook Headings,” we’re reminded that change for change’s sake is a losing proposition now and always has been. Some of our traditions are at least two million years old; our culture and the experiences of the past have value and should NOT be discarded on promises of blue sky and concession rights in Atlantis circa 3000 B.C. An awful lot of grief has been created by Utopians and Utopian movements promising brand new Edens but never delivering.

And Hayek’s quotation, Exhibit C: “Man does NOT and canNOT know everything and when he acts as if he does, disaster follows,” is wisdom aiming to protect us against charismatic hucksters who want to sell us a pig in a poke. Just because someone has an attractive, confident personality and believes something with all their heart, mind and soul doesn’t mean they’re right or their words are true . . . and it doesn’t mean you should drink their kool-aid either. TRUE BELIEVERS -- whether they’re the Jim Jones,’ radical Islamist Jihadists, or Heaven’s Gate leaders or anyone following any of those folks – such TRUE BELIEVERS tend to be wrong about thirty times more often then they’re right and if we’re not circumspect and cautious they can lose us our lives, liberty and sacred honor and perhaps our very souls.

The 2008 election was a referendum on these four exhibits . . . the eclectorate got what they deserved: a charismatic huckster and true believer leading us toward his kool-aid. Unfortunately, 2008’s other offering was a progressive Republican who though he was perhaps one hundred times preferable to Barack Obama, was just Tweedle-dumb running against Tweedle-dumber. The biggest potential virtue of Barack Obama is in reminding all American voters of the four great truths represented by Exhibits A, B, C and D and reminding us how wonderful the United States of America is by threatening us seriously with its loss.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

** What in the hell are “copybook headings?” In the old penmanship books they not only taught kids to print and write longhand, but did so with a constant barrage of wise counsel such as: “A penny saved is a penny earned.” “A fool and his money are soon parted.” “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” “Fortune favors the bold.” “Better late than never.” “Never look a gift horse in the mouth.” "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." “If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” Etc., etc.

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Rajjpuut's Folly: Progressive vs. Fiscal- Constitutional-Conservative

Posted by Bob VanDeHey on May 29, 2010 at 11:00pm


Patriotism: a High-Demand Commitment
Part III: Understanding the Progressive Opposition We Face
Let us now talk about the "enemy." We are wise not to dare consider him the "loyal opposition" since he refuses to play by the rules of the Constitution, nor the rules of truth and normally understood fair play . . . and yet he holds us to those three high standards at all times (employing our "scripture" to do their hellish work) and has the mainstream media virtually 95% committed to advancing his lies. We must, under these circumstances, conduct ourselves in the most circumspect and non-violent manner, like the superior human beings knowing a superior and more ultimately compassionate truth that we are. Every day, that policy has won, the TEA Party, for example, greater and greater respect. But enough about us . . . . What do progressives believe? What do they feel they need to pass on to help us less-enlightened Americans to understand and embrace the beneficial changes they’re wisely bringing us? How do we conservatives refute all the specious progressive nonsense that’s continually thrust upon us and ballyhooed in the mainstream media? The progressive argument is found in normal print below. The Conservative rebuttal is written in italic print.
America through progressive eyes:
This is a very flawed land and jingoistic land where hypocrites abound. Our national vision is a gross lie seen through a distorted mirror called American History learned by rote triviality and blended into a “melting-pot” consciousness known as American “exceptionalism.” Justifying our founders as “God-led” patriots we dismiss with little thought their genocide of the native tribes inhabiting the lands when we first arrived; the enslavement of Black Africans whom we tore away from their native shores; the outright theft of 2/3 of what was once Mexico away from its people; and the use of concentration camps to control vast numbers of German- and Italian-Americans in World War I and Japanese-Americans in World War II. These sins are each of them so great they can never be expiated. Calling our most monumental lie “Manifest Destiny” a charade for some of the cruelest actions ever seen on earth, may not make us popular, but these truths can NOT go unsaid.
America, the Big-Picture truth:
America, like all nations, has had and still has its failings. Evil men and women have always existed even upon our own shores. Good men and good women also are prone to error. The mistakes of the past, however, are in the past and immutable. Choosing to use them as permanent stains upon the people of the present is utter nonsense and foolhardy propagandistic ranting, nothing more, nothing less. Clearly, the wide library of progressive lies about America, Americans and the “American Way” tell us way more about the kind of malcontented people that become progressives and raise their children that way than they do about America’s weaknesses. The utterly worst chapters of American History show a not very compassionate and often cruel or at least careless thoughtlessness toward other cultures. But cultural clashes are not unknown elsewhere and seldom have been moderated into absolutely benign cultural mergers anywhere. Looked at in that light, America comes out flawed but not evil. That is realism, plain and simple. Understand your mistakes, learn from them and avoid them in the future. Nihilistic progressivism would have all Americans forever guilty and apologizing for our very breath. Rajjpuut did NOT enslave anyone. Rajjpuut did NOT put anyone in a concentration camp. Rajjpuut has never killed anyone. Rajjpuut refuses to be held eternal prisoner to the sins of the past. Rajjpuut recommends all clear thinking Americans adopt a similar line of thinking, the past is uncontrollable . . . work now on improving those things we can control, period.
Be fair and accurate, Progressives! And notice, that the examples given in World War I and World War II were brought about by progressive presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delando Roosevelt. Be fair and accurate, Progressives! Why not compare us to what you are espousing: totalitarianism (all collectivism -- and progressivism is utterly collectivistic, regardless of how they attempt to sugar coat it -- is based upon the Utopian ideas of Engles and Marx and owe much of their strength to labor and environmental movements like the Luddites in Great Britain in opposition to the Industrial Revolution) . . . all this is another sort of Clashing of Cultures and the prime collectivist states Communist USSR, Communist China and Nazi Germany have seen to the murder of 94 million civilians in the name of their ideologies with the Nazis only responsible for 13 million civilian deaths. Compared to what progressivism espouses, America looks darn good. What’s going on upon these shores is pretty wonderful in its own way. There’s a reason that the French gave us the Statue of Liberty. There’s a reason that ours is the land that hundreds of millions of people have dreamed of and tens of millions of peoples have uprooted themselves to come here legally. There’s a reason that millions of people cross into our country illegally while Berlin Walls and Iron Curtains couldn’t stop people from escaping collectivistic states. America has been for roughly 200+ years, the land of opportunity. America has things in its past to be ashamed of, America need have NO SHAME for the present. America is in a certain sense perfect, in a greater sense: perfecting.
The Military through progressive eyes:
America is an imperialistic and violent nation (look at that “National Anthem”) interested in virtual-colonization of the Third World. Our military serves the evil purposes of enslavement and oppression of other cultures. There can be no “just” American war and no heroic American fighters because we come into battle with the malevolent thought that our might makes us right always. In league with big business, the military—industrial complex (M-IC) seeks to control the minds, bodies and votes of all Americans as well as much of the rest of the worlds’ peoples and resources. America hides behind its ruthless military strength to browbeat other cultures and nations and their leaders into compliance with America’s desires. We have no real friends in the rest of the world, only a few toady and sycophantic nations that align with us. The existence of the American military-industrial complex (M-IC) allows unenlightenend Americans to believe that they are the greatest, freest and most generous peoples the planet has ever known . . . enlightenment,however, tells us that Americans (until properly educated in progressivism) are narrow-minded slaves to the M-IC who are selfishly plundering the rest of the planet and endangering us all with environmental Armageddon.
The American Military, the Big-Picture Truth:
Here the progressives missed their best chance to embarrass and demean the American military and didn’t . . . so in the spirit of full and open truth-seekers, let us remind them of Custer’s two raids on defenseless Indian camps populated mostly with women and children before his own ultimate demise; plus the Sand Creek Massacre; plus Wounded Knee; plus the U.S. Army’s role in bringing about the horrific death march known as the “Trail of Tears.” Hell, let’s throw in Kent State while we’re at it and Hiroshima and Nagasaki – America’s the only nation ever to drop a nuclear bomb on another nation, after all.
Armies and Navies, etc. are designed to FORCIBLY bring one’s enemies into line while protecting one’s own nation and its interests. Abuse of military power is evil, clearly and undeniably evil. Clearly and undeniably, some unenlightened and abusive use of the nation’s military power has occurred and far too often. Not to mention the almost always inexcusable collateral damage and friendly fire incidents created by either incompetence, ignorance, or accident. The two A-bombs mentioned above, by the way, ended up saving presumably three to four million Japanese lives and ¾ of a million American lives not to mention the wounded on both sides and the virtual destruction of all of Japanese infrastructure and culture.
All the incidents mentioned in the penultimate paragraph are facts of history and cannot be undone, but only learned from. The progressives make a repeated and consistent logical error in always allowing themselves the right to learn from their more than abundant past mistakes, but branding America’s past errors as utterly damning, ubiquitous and eternal. The progressive would brand America and the American military for all our mistakes forever – the mote in our eye -- while forever refusing to acknowledge the far more monumental shortcomings of progressivism and the military abuses of collectivist states – the huge post** in their own eye -- such as the USSR and Red China annihilating the freedom-loving opposition in places like Hungary and Tibet, etc., etc. ad nauseum and stealing the freedoms of their own people by the full-pressed weight of their military might and their military-like police enforcement techniques and philosophy.
In fact, the American military has been largely a force for good in the late and 21st Centuries. It was the American military that brought the utterly cruel and despotic Japanese empire to its end. Ask the Chinese and the Koreans about that. It was the American military that played the primary role in wiping out Nazi Germany with American military supplies also bolstering the causes of Stalin and Churchill against Hitler's forces mightily. It was striving to keep up with the American military which brought about the bankruptcy and eventual PEACEFUL capitulation highlighted by the surprisingly quick fall of the Berlin Wall; collapse of the Warsaw Pact; and the dissolution of the USSR itself. When natural calamaties and crises fall upon innocent civilians, it is more often than not, the American military on the front lines delivering and providing aid and comfort to the stricken. On balance, the American military is more deserving of praise than censure and when you’re talking about virtually unlimited power being used with a respect and restraint that is truly a magnificent truth.
Next time Part IV: the Constitution through Progressive Eyes
Ya'all live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
** For example, the progressives don't like to acknowledge that the lion's share of the present almost $14 TRillion national debt is of their making; that pay-go which they just passed is like "set-aside" which they always attached to their monumental public welfare schemes like social security, medicare and the federal side of medicaid and since passing pay-go earlier this year, they have refused to acknowledge and follow their own good law and find a way to pay for proposed new laws as pay-go requires. Most importantly, let us never talk about the fact that the three government interference set-aside boondoggles (also government spending boondoggles, thus GIBs and GSBs) named above are now obligated for $109 TRillion in required services . . . this is the progressive legacy which they totally ignore while piling scheme upon impossible scheme as if there will never be a day of fiscal-reckoning . . . in other words, progressivism is an enormous lie and a filthy ponzi scheme.
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