Posted on 06/19/2005 6:27:39 PM PDT by genefromjersey
On June 22,1897 - 108 years ago - the great Rudyard Kipling wrote:
" The tumult and the shouting dies-
The captains and the kings depart-"
My mind flashes back to the very recent television news coverage of the Michael Jackson trial.
The verdict is in : " Not Guilty !"
The watching crowds outside the courthouse scowl with disappointment - or exchange "high fives" and shouts of joy.
Behold ! The Great One - now acquitted - rushes from the courthouse, surrounded by his entourage ! He waves, and enters a black SUV ,which drives away ...followed by a news helicopter.
For several minutes,viewers are treated to the sight of his vehicle - hurtling down the highway toward the famous (or infamous) Neverland Ranch.
What a sight ! What a sight ! What...
What ? What's that you say ??
I said : " Why are we watching video coverage - by helicopter yet - of an SUV leaving the scene of a trial ? Is this some sort of car commercial ?"
There was no answer,so I tried again.
"What happened to actual news coverage ?
Over 80,000 people have been murdered in Darfur ,so that an Islamist regime can sell the oil beneath their land to China.
They are doing this with Russian helicopters,and weapons issued to brutal Janjawid mercenaries.
Over a million people have been driven from their homes...and it's still going on ! "
There was still no answer. The networks were busy sorting out plans to interview the jurors,and were filling time with spectator and person-in-the-street "reaction shots"
"Okay : How about Angola ? Surely you must be aware a deadly Marburg epidemic has been raging in Uige Province; that is has infected at least 423 people;that it has killed almost every victim so far ?"
"Did you know that might be another "Blood for Oil" scenario ? That the infection may have started when someone from the Communist Central Government administered "vaccinations" to a group of very young children in Uige ?
Did you the Marburg virus infecting these children is believed to have been a recombinant form; that the doctors used by the Central Government come from a country that has become world-famous for recombinant biotechnology; that these biotech wizards recently signed a cooperation agreement with oil-hungry China ?"
"Why aren't you folks reporting some of these things,instead of wasting our time on an aging,prancing ,self-indulgent muscial has-been ?"
At this point I get an answer - of sorts.
"Heads up, gang ! Time to drop the Michael Jackson coverage. There's a pretty white girl missing down in Aruba,and we need 24/7 coverage !"
Sometimes, I wish my life could be longer,so that I could get my message out to more people; but most of the time it's a relief to know I'm a short-timer.
" Lord God of Hosts,be with us yet,
Let we forget,lest we forget ! "
Yeah, it's been one of those days.
I know that poem by heart, because of the haunting warning it gives. The warning is haunting not just because of the words, but because of their PRESCIENCE. Kipling wrote "Recessional" in 1897, before the Boer War, before World War I, when the British Empire was had not yet reached its zenith and Britain was still rising and strong - the envy of the world - and yet he wrote these words. They are instructive to us, or ought to be.
RECESSIONAL
God of our fathers, known of old--
Lord of our far-flung battle line
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The captains and the kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!
Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe--
Such boasting as the Gentiles use
Or lesser breeds without the law--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard--
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to guard--
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord!
For this reason (the intense focus on the salacious), I have not watched anything on television for over 5 years.
Twenty-five, thirty, forty years ago it was necessary to go out in the cold, dark night to stand in the bushes and peer into the windows of our neighbors. Now there are teams who are invited into the houses of our neighbors and send forth pictures, so we may sit with our choice of beverage in climate controlled comfort and be entertained by the trappings of the lives of Nicole Simpson, Elizabeth Smart, Lacey Peterson, Michael Jackson, the Holloway girl, the Groene children.
When the last flicker of one of these peoples life finally fades from America's television screens followed by "a word from our sponsor" another is waiting to disappear or die to keep those cameras rolling.
"Bread and Circuses" - high-tech version, best way to control the mob. If it was good enough for the Caesars, it's good enough for our present-day Imperators.
It's simple: The stations, the networks, have all these wonderful, expensive high-tech toys and they have to justify paying out the coin for them. And it's hard to do that if they're sitting in the garage or on the pad. Hence minute after minute after hour of orbiting over people and vehicles doing nothing much out of the ordinary.
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