Gods of the Copybook Headings

Kipling's 1919 poem, excerpted herein, reveals eternal wisdom and common sense apropos for a 21st century America that has lost its way.

Copybooks were used to teach penmanship. Each page contained a large heading in perfect cursive which was a proverb or aphorism containing a nugget of wisdom, such as All that glitters is not gold, which students copied. These are Kipling’s Gods of the Copybook Headings. Copybooks disappeared from schools in the 1940s.

Civilization is built on wisdom learned from behavior since the time we lived in trees, leading to inviolable rules of conduct. Millenia of human experience passed down these deeply ingrained rules. Disregarding them inevitably leads to terror and slaughter. Following are the first two stanzas of the poem.

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper protestations 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. 

The gods of the market place refers to transient and ephemeral fads. Today that would be believing that: we can spend and borrow without consequence, there are more than two genders, open borders are okay, children can be chemically and surgically mutilated, anthropogenic climate change, men can compete in women’s sports and decriminalizing and ending bail will not result in more crime.

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 even was 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."

The gods of the market tell us what we want to hear; unlimited spending will create prosperity; we can have perpetual peace if we slash defense spending, ignore threats, sign one-sided treaties (Iran) and appease our adversaries. When the copybook headings are ignored, we are bound and delivered to our foes. Or, as Jefferson put it: “He who beats his sword into plowshares shall plow for those who didn’t.

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, although 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."

The gods of the market promise that every collectivist, socialist, communist, progressive and utopian scheme will create a veritable heaven on earth. But those all are contrary to human nature as propounded by the copybook gods. Instead, they create hell holes like the USSR, Cuba, Venezuela and far too many other places. Following is the conclusion to Kipling’s epic.

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 its vomit and the sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling to the Fire.

And 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!

Kipling’s poem goes to the heart of human nature and is as valid today as when he wrote it 106 years ago. Progressives worship the gods of the market place. They believe the moon is Stilton, pigs have wings, men can become women, terrorists should not be deported, there are many genders and we can run $2 trillion deficits forever. They yearn for the mythical German kingdom where candy grows on trees, lemonade flows in rivers and the fattest ugliest and stupidest man is king.

We ignore the Gods of the Copybook Headings only with great peril because water still wets us and fire still burns. The only question is how much terror and slaughter must America endure before the Gods of the Copybook Headings return.