On Saturday, on Twitter, I responded to a video advertisement I happened to see that warned that a certain medication could be dangerous for “people assigned female at birth”. Well golly, I said, that’s… that’s a bit odd, isn’t it? Why would a mere “assignment” made by a doctor affect the way a drug behaves in the body? Oh, because the assignment points to a real biological difference? Say, is there maybe a single, shorter word we could use to identify people with this particular biology…?
You get the point. Obvious absurdities like this are why I’m confident the madness will pass, I said, the only question is how many people it will maim before it does. And then @BranMalin replied:
After that I had to go look up the referenced poem, of course. Maybe y’all already know it. He’s quoting “The Gods of the Copybook Headings”, by Rudyard Kipling. It was originally published in 1919. You know I love pieces of writing that are 100+ years old and read almost like they were written yesterday, and I would say this poem qualifies.
In the poem, “Copybook Headings” refers to “copybooks”, common in British schoolrooms in the 19th century, in which some proverb or quotation was handwritten at the top of the page, with the idea that the student would copy it over and over again down the page, thus learning handwriting and learning the proverb. The “Gods of the Copybook Headings” refers to old truths, timeless truths, truths from Christianity, truths your parents taught you and their parents taught them, and so on.
This is contrasted with the “Gods of the Market Place”, the passing fads and fashions that promise you more than they ever deliver, and cause much ruin along the way.
The poem appears to be in the public domain now, so I’ll just put it right here for you.
The Gods of the Copybook Headings
By Rudyard Kipling
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 burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
Saw a meme of two parents in a hospital delivery room looking at the doctor holding their new baby. The parents ask the doctor, "Is it a boy or girl?" The doctor replies, "I don't know, you'll have to ask the kindergarten teacher. "
Connecting cookbook headings to the technocracy idol - does anyone have a guess at why transgenders aren't using the "born this wsy argument" like homosexuals did? Maybe it's being used and I missed it? I don't recall hearing, "do you think I'd choose to be stuck in the wrong body?"
Did a slaveholder who inherited his father's plantation have a choice?
Should we "just love the slave owner?" That turn of phrase is from Greg Koukl at str.org.