City Of Brass

 

This seems appropriate on the first Sunday of Lent, Kipling's City of Brass:

Here was a people whom after their works
thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion:
and in this palace is the last information
respecting lords collected in the dust.” –
The Arabian Nights.

In a land that the sand overlays – the ways to her gates are untrod – A multitude ended their days whose gates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all!

When the wine stirred in their heart their bosoms dilated.
They rose to suppose themselves kings over all things created –
To decree a new earth at a birth without labour or sorrow –
To declare: “We prepare it to-day and inherit to-morrow.”
They chose themselves prophets and priests of minute understanding,
Men swift to see done, and outrun, their extremest commanding –
Of the tribe which describe with a jibe the perversions of Justice –
Panders avowed to the crowd whatsoever its lust is.

Swiftly these pulled down the walls that their fathers had made them –
The impregnable ramparts of old, they razed and relaid them
As playgrounds of pleasure and leisure, with limitless entries,
And havens of rest for the wastrels where once walked the sentries;
And because there was need of more pay for the shouters and marchers,
They disbanded in face of their foemen their yeomen and archers.
They replied to their well-wishers’ fears – to their enemies laughter,
Saying: “Peace! We have fashioned a God Which shall save us hereafter.
We ascribe all dominion to man in his factions conferring,
And have given to numbers the Name of the Wisdom unerring.”

They said: “Who has hate in his soul? Who has envied his neighbour?
Let him arise and control both that man and his labour.”
They said: “Who is eaten by sloth? Whose unthrift has destroyed him?
He shall levy a tribute from all because none have employed him.”
They said: “Who hath toiled, who hath striven, and gathered possession?
Let him be spoiled. He hath given full proof of transgression.”
They said: “Who is irked by the Law? Though we may not remove it.
If he lend us his aid in this raid, we will set him above it!
So the robber did judgment again upon such as displeased him,
The slayer, too, boasted his slain, and the judges released him.

As for their kinsmen far off, on the skirts of the nation,
They harried all earth to make sure none escaped reprobation.
They awakened unrest for a jest in their newly-won borders,
And jeered at the blood of their brethren betrayed by their orders.
They instructed the ruled to rebel, their rulers to aid them;
And, since such as obeyed them not fell, their Viceroys obeyed them.
When the riotous set them at naught they said: “Praise the upheaval!
For the show and the world and the thought of Dominion is evil!”
They unwound and flung from them with rage, as a rag that defied them,
The imperial gains of the age which their forefathers piled them.
They ran panting in haste to lay waste and embitter for ever
The wellsprings of Wisdom and Strengths which are Faith and Endeavour.
They nosed out and digged up and dragged forth and exposed to derision
All doctrine of purpose and worth and restraint and prevision:

And it ceased, and God granted them all things for which they had striven,
And the heart of a beast in the place of a man’s heart was given. . . .

. . . . . . . .

When they were fullest of wine and most flagrant in error,
Out of the sea rose a sign – out of Heaven a terror.
Then they saw, then they heard, then they knew – for none troubled to hide it,
A host had prepared their destruction, but still they denied it.
They denied what they dared not abide if it came to the trail;
But the Sward that was forged while they lied did not heed their denial.
It drove home, and no time was allowed to the crowd that was driven.
The preposterous-minded were cowed – they thought time would be given.
There was no need of a steed nor a lance to pursue them;
It was decreed their own deed, and not a chance, should undo them.
The tares they had laughingly sown were ripe to the reaping.
The trust they had leagued to disown was removed from their keeping.
The eaters of other men’s bread, the exempted from hardship,
The excusers of impotence fled, abdicating their wardship,
For the hate they had taught through the State brought the State no defender,
And it passed from the roll of the Nations in headlong surrender!

On point, don't you think?

Your Old Pal,

LSP

PS. Thanks, LL, for the constant reminder.

States Rights

Do you remember reading Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and thinking how awesome it was? Such beautiful thoughts expressed so beautifully. But consider this, H.L. Mencken via Borepatch. It's long for this kebob stand of a mind blog but read on:

The Gettysburg speech is at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history. Put beside it, all the whoopings of the Websters, Sumners and Everetts seem gaudy and silly. It is eloquence brought to a pellucid and almost child-like perfection—the highest emotion reduced to one graceful and irresistible gesture. Nothing else precisely like it is to be found in the whole range of oratory. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. 

But let us not forget that it is oratory, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it! Put it into the cold words of everyday! The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination — “that government of the people, by the people, for the people,” should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in that battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves. 

What was the practical effect of the battle of Gettysburg? What else than the destruction of the old sovereignty of the States, i. e., of the people of the States? The Confederates went into battle an absolutely free people; they came out with their freedom subject to the supervision and vote of the rest of the country—and for nearly twenty years that vote was so effective that they enjoyed scarcely any freedom at all. Am I the first American to note the fundamental nonsensicality of the Gettysburg address? If so, I plead my aesthetic joy in it in amelioration of the sacrilege.

“that government of the people, by the people, for the people,” should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in that battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves. 

Reflect on that and ask yourself, when Leviathan tears down another statue, how free are you. Or, if you'd rather, make like a pathetic lib Sumner sheep and bleat freedom, no slavery! Well done, but don't support its antithesis.

All for the Cause,

LSP

Lock Her Up!

A friend sent in this helpful infographic. As you enjoy its wisdom, reflect on the Women's Marches that are going on around the known world in protest against Donald Trump. 

One of them is taking place in London and a member of our UK Bureau had this to say.

The largest landlord in London in terms of area and value of property is the Emir of Qatar.

So who do you protest against?

1. An absolutist monarch, who runs his country according a Salafist interpretation of Sharia Law, with 1.5 million people living in slavery and where women have to wear  the hijab.

Or:

2. Donald Trump.

For London feminists  the answer's easy. Donald Trump every time, because he's so much more evil than the radical Islamist Emir, that great respecter of women's rights and freedom. Go on, ask one of Qatar's female slaves and see what they tell you.

Oh, you can't, they're not allowed to speak.

Feminists, you're risible. As for Hillary, Lock Her Up.

Your Friend,

LSP

Rain At Last

Dramatic thunder, lightening and sheets of rain, all of which seem appropriate given today's anniversary. Its good news too for the parched fields and thirsty doves - hopefully the latter will come out in abundance tomorrow. But in the meanwhile the parsonage seems to hiss with the sound of rain.

What a relaxing sound and quite unlike the news that millions of Englishpersons will soon be on some kind of 'nonce' database; whatever happened to "Britons never, ever, ever shall be slaves"? Let's hope that kind of thing doesn't happen here and equally to the point, is stopped there (See Pavlov's Cat, Old Holborn & Railway Eye amongst others).

Speaking of which, LL has an interesting post on freedom. This surely has to be more than 'autonomy of choice' - Augustine would say (I think) that it consists in the act of choosing the good... but I'd welcome any thoughts on the thing.

God bless,

LSP

Dhimmi in Chief?

You will bow down before me, Jor-El! First you and then one day, your heirs!

I know its old news but a recent post at Eye of Polyphemus recalled me to its noxious fact. Why would the leader of the world's largest democracy bow down before a slave owning Saudi Arabian monarch?

Commentators have noted that the slaver king didn't return Barrack Hussein's gesture of subservience, doubtless because:

"Obama’s speech in Cairo will not elicit a new cordial tone with Islamic societies but rather contempt. What was on display was not a visionary new approach... but an abject display of weakness... This situation has placed a degree of veto power over U.S. foreign policy with a feudal theocracy where it is illegal for women to drive. This situation is as intolerable as it is ridiculous." Money Confidential

It is ridiculous and its also tragic that our President should pay homage to the Guardian of the Holy Sites while remaining deathly silent over the daily atrocities carried out their devotees; check out Religion of Peace for the bodycount.

Yours somberly on the Feast of the Transfiguration.

LSP

Slavers

Grand Mufti with Top Saudi Clerics

In a characteristically irenic gesture towards peace in the Middle East, leading Saudi government cleric, Sheikh Saad Al-Buraik, told Palestinians how to act towards Jewish women, "Their women are yours to take, legitimately. God made them yours. Why don't you enslave their women?" Why not indeed. According to high-level Saudi jurist, Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan, “Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam.” And for a fact, slavery is alive and well in several Islamist countries, such as the Sudan, Somalia, Niger, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, to name several.

But perhaps we needn't go so far afield to find the kind of human subjagation endorsed by the Koran, here in the West we've been at something like it for several generations. Belloc had this to say:

"The more the State steps in to enforce conditions of security and sufficiency; the more it regulates wages, provides compulsory insurance, doctoring, education, and in general takes over the lives of the wage-earners, for the benefit of the companies and men employing the wage-earners, the more is this condition of semi-slavery accentuated. And if it be continued for, say, three generations, it will become so thoroughly established as a social habit and frame of mind that there may be no escape from it in the countries where State Socialism of this kind has been forged and riveted on the body politic.

In Europe, England in particular (but many other countries in a lesser degree) has bound itself to this system. Below a certain level of income a man is guaranteed a bare subsistence should he be out of employment. It is doled out to him by public officials at the expense of losing human dignity. Every circumstance of his family is examined; he is even more in the hands of these officials when out of employment than in the hands of his employer when employed. The thing is still in transition; the mass of men do not yet see to what goal they are tending; but the neglect of human dignity, the potential, if not actual, denial of the doctrine of free will, have led by a natural consequence to what are already semi-servile institutions. These will become fully servile institutions as time goes on." Belloc, An Essay Against Communism

I think Belloc was right; the "servile state" that he prophecied so accurately is surely a natural consequence of our ongoing retreat from the Incarnational Faith which endows mankind with inalienable worth. With that foundation abandoned, freedom becomes an exercise in dictatorship and the triumph of the strongest will.

Perhaps, then, it's no accident that we see the Socialist Worker's Party marching in step with Jihadi terrorists, for both deny in their separate ways the real value of the human person and are slavers, united in their attack on what was once christendom. The question is, do we have the conviction to fight back the assault?

Just a thought!

LSP