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“With the Hopes That Our World Is Built on They Were Utterly Out of Touch”

A few recent events remind me of Rudyard Kipling. Gods of the Copybook headings. Like many poems, it can be interpreted differently by different people. It is up to each individual to determine who the Gods in the Copybook Headings or who the Gods are in the Market Place. Like many poems, there are parts that are stronger than others. In any event, I felt it was worth reposting.

As I move through each of my incarnations,
I prostrate myself to the Gods in the Market Place.
Watching them grow and fall through the eyes of reverent fingers, I am able to see their hearts.
Und die Gods of the Copybook Titles? I’m sure they outlast them all.

They found us while we were still living among trees. We were each shown by them in turn
This Water would definitely wet us as much as that Fire would surely burn.
However, we felt they were missing in Vision, Uplift and Breadth Of Mind.
We left them to educate the Gorillas, while following the March of Mankind.

The Spirit listed our movements. They didn’t slow down.
The Market Place Gods are not cloud- or wind-borne.
They were always ahead of our progress and word is currently coming.
A tribe might have been exterminated from their icefields, or Rome’s lights were out.

The Hopes upon which the World is built were out of sync with them.
They claimed that the Moon wasn’t Stilton, but they insisted she was Dutch.
They also denied Wishes being Horses, and denied that Wings could be found in Pigs.
These beautiful promises were made by the Gods at the Market.

The Cambrian measures promised permanent peace when they were formed.
They said that if they gave us our weapons, the wars between the tribes would end.
When we were disarmed, they sold us and bound us to our foe.
Und the Gods of the Copybook Headings swore: “Stick with the Devil you’re aware.”

The Fuller Life was promised to us on our first Feminian Sandstones
It began by loving our neighbours and ends with his love for us.
Until our women lost their children, and men lost faith and reason.
Und die Gods of the Copybook Headings declared: “The Wages of Death is Sin.”

The Carboniferous Epoch promised all of us abundance.
To rob selected Peter in order to pay collective Paul
Even though our wealth was great, it wasn’t enough to buy everything we wanted.
According to the Gods of the Copybook Headings, “if you don’t work, you die.”

The Gods of the Market fell, and the smooth-tongued wizards fled.
It was so true that even the most humble hearts believed it.
It is all not gold that glitters, but two and two make four
It was explained once again by the Gods of the Copybookheadings.

It will continue to be as it did at the birth Man.
Since the beginning of Social Progress, there have been only four certainties.
The Dog goes back to his Vomit, and the Sow to her Mire.
The burnt Fool’s finger is bandaged and the Fool goes back to the Fire.

This is it. The brave new world starts after all of this.
If all men have paid their dues for existence, no one must make up his own sins.
Just as water will drown us, so will fire.
Copybook headings are replete with terror and murder!