Civilization is a lot like the skin of an apple. It can be brilliantly colored, flawlessly smooth, and brightly polished. But it’s very, very thin. It’s fragile. So, it has to be protected.
Barbarism, on the other hand hand, is tough. It doesn’t have to be nurtured. It is, in fact, the natural state of man. It grows spontaneously, and so, like weeds in a beautiful lawn, it must be ruthlessly stamped out. And the only thing that’s ever been effective in stamping it out is a robust and vigilant civilization; one that is not afraid to do the dirty work of crushing the barbarians mercilessly.
Read the whole post. Lots of goodies in there and the uncomfortable truth that unless you’re willing to get down and dirty and do what’s necessary the barbarians will simply walk right in. And this is more than just those who physically want to harm you, it’s the barbarians who want to take your stuff to give to others in the name of fairness that will wreck this society just as badly.
Comments
Once you pay the Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane?
Friends:
Here it is in full. RK has been dead for 75 years or so, but his comments are as relevant as tomorrows news-blog posts.
I wish our State Department and current administration read Kipling.On the other hand, they would likely dismiss him as a fascist, white-privilege defending, capitalist patriarch.
Read and ponder, or maybe read and weep.
Regards
GKT
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Rudyard Kipling
Dane-Geld
A.D. 980-1016
It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: --
"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"
Nah, I wouldn't take that bet either.