The Gods Of The Copybook Headings

  Originally Posted: June 11, 2010

 I’m trying something different here to see how an idea pans out. Not that I’m trying to use you as guinea pigs, but it’s a departure from what I usually do. I’m going to attempt to take a classic work of art, and marry it to today’s culture; and see if I can pull it off. Classic poet and writer, Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem back in 1919 titled ‘The Gods of the Copybook Headings’. Now most of us don’t know what Copybooks were, let alone Copybook Headings; so a little history visit would be in order.

      Copybooks were used in schools back at the turn of the century, for students to practice their cursive writing in. It had two solid horizontal lines about an inch apart, and between them was a dashed line. The teacher would write a phrase or sentence at the top of the page as a guide for the student to copy repetitively down the page, over and over; until the student had that pattern engrained and mastered. That initial pre-written phrase was called a ‘heading’…hence the term Copybook Heading.

      OK, now that we’re on the same page I’d like you to read through Kipling’s poem; and afterwards will be a writing of my own in which I try to analyze and interpret his words into an analogy appropriate for today in America. His is a poem, mine will be allegorical.

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The Gods of the Copybook Headings – Rudyard Kipling – 1919

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 bum,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

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Chronology of Impending Despair – by Conservatarian – 2010

 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.

      As we grow older, no matter what our race; we’re led by society into purchasing and investing with our hard earned money. We hand over our cash to those who appear trustworthy; then lace our fingers and clasp our hands, hoping that the market won’t crash, businesses won’t fail, that we’ll still have a job. But cycles come and go, and businesses do fail. Even the most prosperous eventually fall if mismanaged. But when you stop to look around…the machine keeps running, and the system we learned from doesn’t miss a beat. It actually gets stronger as time goes on.

 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 were naïve and thirsting for knowledge; looking for someone in leadership to help guide us down the proper path. We believed (thanks to them) that we needed to lean on them because we didn’t know what lay ahead in the path, and they did; that we needed them to guide us to something better. But they let us down. They weren’t uplifting, they lacked vision, and couldn’t think outside the box; they just consumed more power. So, we turned away from them and followed along like sheep with the rest of society; working and slaving away for a someday that never seemed to come. We sent our kids off to school to be taught, because of course; teachers know best how to handle unruly, empty headed little kids. Or so we thought.

 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.

     We go through the day to day motions, preoccupied with the task directly at hand in our jobs; finishing up and going to the bar to dust off the day and relax. But while we’re doing these things; that ‘machine’ keeps on moving, in spite of our inactivity to deal with it. They kept teaching our kids what to think, how to think…over and over and over while we were oblivious. We didn’t see the warning signs along the way. We drove and drove that capitalistic, industrial beast for all it was worth; but they had to slow us down with regulation and meddling in our business affairs. After all, there was a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, and an oil well disaster there too; so what better time to manipulate things in their favor to slow us down and exert their ever growing power? After all, they needed us to be dependent on them for direction; it’s the only way that they can maintain control.

 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.

      Now the Stilton and Dutch reference was regarding a type of cheese made by the Dutch…but the analogy being made was that despite what they tell us, we know what’s true and what’s not. We know what needs to be done; but we don’t act. They don’t listen to us, tell us that up is down, and down is up; trying to convince us that they knew best, and we’re just too stupid to understand. They’re so out of touch it’s not even funny. So, we gave up waiting on them and took off to the local shopping malls; and spent to our hearts content. We needed something to make us feel better and buying new toys did the trick. More distractions.

 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.”

      The Cambrian measures was in reference to the bodies of water in Europe that separated land masses…which joined one land mass to another. But the larger picture, in context is that we’re actively being herded into a universal form of government; all encompassing, with the promise of peace and harmony. All we have to do to achieve this is to turn over our weapons and forego the 2^nd amendment, by adhering to the U.N. directives set forth for all world citizens. Once they have removed the firearms from our homes, they will have complete control; and force us into this world governance against our will. We’ll be told by the ‘teachers’, the leaders, the masters; to just accept it…to ‘stick to the devil we know’, what we’ve been taught. Sit down and shut up…They know best.

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.”

      Our foundations were built on truth and honor, freedom and liberty; and those things offered a better way of life. But over time our foundation, our feminian sandstones…have been chipped away at steadily, and eroded to the point where we’ve traded friendships, and bonds with our friends and neighbors. It’s been replaced with the ‘if it feels good, do it’ mentality; sleeping with our neighbors wife or husband, eliminating honor. We’ve become so debased as a culture (driven by the teacher’s and leaders), that faith in God has been cast aside, women are aborting babies; there’s no longer any value placed on human life. If we go against the grain and stand up for what is right and true, we’re maligned and marginalized as crazed bigots and hate mongers; to where we’re being prepared to be culled. The wages of sin is death~…death of common sense perhaps? …Death of a way of life? Or the destruction of a working system to be replaced by what ‘they’ have in mind.

 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.” 

     Our Carboniferous Epoch, was our industrial revolution; where we grew and grew and prospered, becoming more wealthy than any other nation. ‘They’ worked diligently, finding ways to rob us of our individual wealth; to redistribute it back out to those that haven’t earned it. The propping up of the recipient class; healthcare, food stamps, welfare, social security etc., has led us to the point where our individual wealth has been decimated in favor of the collective, through social programs; creating a class of people that can’t fend for themselves, reliant solely on ‘them’ for their means of existence. And ‘they’ take it from us to achieve that goal. We’re heading down the path of Chairman Mao and the extermination not only of the human spirit; but Death, if we don’t conform to the collective mentality. If we don’t provide the labor to feed the beast, we’ll be plowed under. They’re actively printing so much money, that our currency can’t possibly withstand the pressure. The dollar ‘has’ to crash and become worthless. It won’t matter how much paper money you hold, because it won’t be able to buy anything. Will we be left to die in the fields of the collective?

 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.

      Stock market crashes, too big to fail bailouts; everyone deflecting responsibility for the causes of financial demise… Barney Frank, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke, Chris Dodd, and the rest of the silver tongued bastards that generated the carnage; slithered away and hid from the public, while legislating, demonizing, deflecting and hoarding power to protect themselves in the process. But we started to wake up and take notice that we were deceived and distracted by sparkling, shiny objects; where two plus two actually did equal four. We’re being told that two plus two is something like thirty seven these days, and ‘they’ figure if they say it long enough and loud enough…that we’ll accept it as truth. Can you explain the ‘new math’ being taught in school? Economics? Why is capitalism not being taught anymore?

 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;

      One thing remains constant regardless of the era we live in; Truth. Many have tried to dilute and massage the meaning of ‘truth’; but it remains the constant. There truly are only four things certain since Social Progress began: 1. Dogs do return to their vomit; and eat it. 2. Pigs wallow in filth. 3. Indoctrinated idiots will burn their hands in a fire, get bandaged up; and stick their hand right back in the fire again…because they don’t learn their lessons. They keep expecting a different result by maintaining the same path they’ve been on. It’s a complete inability to be self sufficient; requiring direction from ‘they’, to exist…because they can’t think or do for themselves.

 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 bum,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

 Finally 4.   Once ‘they’ve’ completed their mission of collective, utopian world government, all individual wealth is confiscated and redistributed to welfare recipients (dependent on the government for their existence), the human spirit is crushed and no personal responsibility for ones own actions; Just as sure as water is wet, and fire burns, we’ll then be right where they want us…ready and compliant, accepting of the scraps that they hand down from on high. And if we refuse~ we’ll be exterminated through mass genocide…it’s been the way of every Socialized dictatorship in human history. Welcome to the Age of Obama!

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      Many have come before this president, and have helped to pave the way for what we’re going through right now. It’s incumbent on us to rectify the situation, to stop the beast; to save our children. ‘They’ know that they can’t change ‘our’ minds, which is why they’ve focused so heavily on the indoctrination process in our schools. ‘They’ will achieve their goals not by coming after us, but by coming for our children.

      The ‘They’…The ‘Gods of the Copybook Headings’, are the governmental leaders; and the teachers in our schools that have been employed by the beast to make sure our kids are being taught their narrative. They’re attempting to make sure that our children will pose no threat to them…and actually join them in the effort to fundamentally transform America into a socialistic utopia; which as we know from history, only leads to misery, despair, and eventually; Death. Food for thought.