TUESDAY, JAN 1, 2019: NOTE TO FILE

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

Or the Laws of Nature unlived

Eric Lee, A-SOCIATED PRESS

TOPICS: RUDYARD KIPLING, FROM THE WIRES, THE BEAT GOES ON, YEATS

Abstract: Some writers are more prescient than others. Rudyard Kipling speaks to those of the present as he was able to think more than a decade ahead and into the past. And Yeats has some words to offer.

TUCSON (A-P) — To commemorate a centennial: Before speech to text, before even typing, copybooks had verities thought true for the ages printed at the top of the page that students then repeated to practice their handwriting. Verities, however, failed to grow the economy or build empire and were replaced by the Gods of the Market Place, the narrative of the SYSTEM serving intelligentsia. Many still worship devoutly, and make proper prostrations, but soon even the most gilded tongued wordsmiths will not be able to glitter, nor to enthusiasticly worship their God$ when the Market Place no longer empowers them.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

by 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 [cheese]; 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!

Although 'analysis is paralysis', at risk of translating the poet's vision and parapharse:

The "Gods of the Copybook Headings" by Rudyard Kipling is a hauntingly beautiful snapshot of the human struggle...the "Copybook Headings" [Nature's laws] reference holds two meanings: 1) in the 19th century, children would practice their calligraphy with eternal maxims thought universally true; 2) these edicts are simple recitations of interpreted natural law that don't promise beautiful things, but represent truth. Nature is not kind, good, fair or evil; it just is what-is.

The Gods of the Marketplace peddle promises and ideas, various schemes for “social progress”, of "fairness", "justice", "liberty", "equality" and fallacious ideologies based on defying basic truths [e.g. UN's 17 Sustinable Development Goals]. The peddlers are politicians, philosophers, social engineers, politicized academics, servers of elite interests, pundits, tyrants, media talking heads, etc.

Throughout history, as society advances from the jungle to civilization, we've a habit of ignoring natural law or universal maxims (water is wet, fire burns, second law of thermodymanics...) in pursuit of wordy "new" ideas of the marketplace, or humancentric society. These false hopes and grand lies based on hope and change are often peddled by ideological salesmen, servants of both religion and politics and the economy, which wield the power of new ideas to control humanity.

In pursuit of new wisdom, "[we seek] a truth that will help us deny our limited creature nature and exalt us for our mental or physical or moral prowess. Truth, that, supposedly none has known or seen before – these [belief-based] ideas change and pass like women's clothing fashions."

Our desire to defy Nature, conquer natural law and evolve toward a state greater than our flawed humanity brings advancement, but leaves us susceptible for manipulation by the Gods of the Marketplace. In time, understanding of natural law is replaced by worship of marketplace ideas, education, entertainment, and even religion, which are ultimately superficial and therefore short-lived. Short-termism goes with short-lived.

Entire power structures from chiefdoms to nation-states have been built and have lived with these marketplace ideas as their foundation to justify business-as-usual empire-building. As time cycles, favoring one power structure for another, death and destruction follow the failure of these marketplace ideas and humanity painfully realizes old truths, or natural law, which out lives social, government, religious or man-made self-serving promises.

When these Gods of government, religion and civilization fail, we are left with the violence of natural law and human nature, which is not kind, good, fair or evil; it just is.

From another intellectual, "The only sociopolitical element is the inference that 'Social Progress' – this constant following of the 'market place' truths will end up with mankind justifying their own existence and loosing sight that they are imperfect. From that unfortunate vantage point, they have 'progressed' to the point where their downfall is the only possible fate."

The implication, then, is that those who build a life based on the truths of the Gods of the Copybook Headings will behave more wisely and perhaps avoid destruction. What is unclear is whether Kipling believed men capable of following the truths of the Gods of the Copybook Headings [Nature] or whether he had a more cynical view of mankind and believed we are all meant to “learn the hard way” and return to them after having ignored them [universal truth, natural law] at our peril.

History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes and every few hundred years wealth, power and fashionable marketplace ideas rise to greatness and crash and burn. Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley, Persia, Macedonia, Greece, Roman Empire, Byzantium, Mongolian Empire, Ming Dynasty, Ottoman Empire, Hapsburg Empire, French-Bourbon Monarchy, British Empire, Third Reich, Soviet Union, and United States of America.

In these modern times, the West's unsustainable "ideas of the marketplace" steadily march toward reckoning day. In the United States, the empire upon which the entire global financial fiat-money scheme is centered, the state has erected itself as a welfare/warfare entity, defying natural law in myriad ways.

As we (Americans) "progressed" away from principles of self-determination and self-reliance, we've bought into the marketplace ideas of dependence and expectation of comfort, luxury, opportunity and entitlement only the state can promise to provide. We've chosen to value positive rights over protecting our negative rights, or natural rights. The Gods of the Marketplace are convincing, persuasive and full of promises they're unable to keep (the government doesn't even collect enough tax revenue to cover the costs of endless wars, mandatory entitlement programs and interest on the debt; we'll eventually default or drastically cut the cord for the dependent class, which will not be pretty).

Everything about this situation screams unsustainable, but the Gods of the Marketplace continue to promise, and we continue to listen not to Nature, but to they who serve the Marketplace with Words, Words, Words. They're hustlers/peddlers and scheming opportunists now as they've always been. So goes mankind marching toward its destruction once more. In the end, perhaps that's all we really understand.

Final thought: I cannot discern whether Kipling's ultimate message was one of nihilism or hope that eventually, in our perpetual quest for evolution, we will evolve away from the same cycles that entrap and define us. We may not be able to stop "progress", but Nature can. Only those who listen to Nature may be able to stop this time, the next time if there is one, and so on until there are no more next times and humanity's experiment in living ends.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

by Rudyard Kipling, 1919
[Plus prose update, 2019]

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
  [As the expansionist form of human, omnesiant conquerors—as I pass memetically through the generations,]
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
  [I serve the SYSTEM I depend upon even though I know it to be unsustainable, degrading a planetary life-support system.]
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
  [Freed from temporal blindness, the mind's eye sees complex societies raise and fall,]
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
  [And the Rules of Nature,K-culture, determiner of what works, outlasts all r-culture narratives of human Exceptionalism/Dominionism.]

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
  [Our pre-agrarian ancestors going back 500 million years, often learning the hard way, evolved as K-strategists by listening to Nature]
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
  [The basic facts of life those who lived long and prospered learned:]
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
  [But what Nature was trying to tell us did not make us feel like Supreme Lords of Our Dominion,]
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
  [So we left Nature's selections for mere animals to benefit from, while we celebrated our Conquests (for a time).]

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
  [We did as the Contingencies of Survival bid us. The voice of what worked was steadfast.]
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
  [Being not like the airy hot prattle of the wordsmith Servants of the Market Place]
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
  [But as chiefdoms to nation-state Empires arose and fell, the voice of Nature again intruded]
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
  [That when complex society's diminishing returns exceed Nature's Limits then they soon pass away.]

With the Hopes [Lies] that our World is built on they [the Gods of the Copybook Headings] were utterly out of touch,
  [Those who endeavored to live long and prosper, listened not to the prattle of Promise,]
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
  [They whose ears were atuned to Nature, denied the self-serving claims of the Market Place,]
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
  [They denied Wishes to favor Wisdom; they denied the Certitudes of Experts;]
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
  [So we Servants of the Marketplace worshipped short-term measures of success.]

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
  [When multicellular life formed, the cells, other than cancerous, promised to life in perpetual cooperation.]
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
  [Humans however fought, and priests swore that if warriors surrendered their weapons, all would live in peace.]
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
  [But when we surrendered to hierarchical control systems, we were delivered unto SYSTEM servitude.]
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
  [And the Voice of What-works said: "Know then thyself; listen not to the Gods of the Market Place."]

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
  [In the name of eternal Verities, we believed we were promised Immortal Life]
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
  [(Which sounded deliriously noble, and ended by killing our kind)]
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
  [Till our Calhoun rat-like experiment in techno-industrial society ended,]
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."
  [And the Malthusian Corrective Feedbacks reminded us: "The Wages of Error, Ignorance, and Illusion is Death."]

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
  [In the Coal Forming Epoch was stored an abundance of fossil fuel Sunshine,]
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
  [By exploiting planetary resources, we rob posterity to enable exponiental grown for a few, for a time,]
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
  [But, though we of the Consumer Society had plenty of money, there was no Prosperity of Enough to buy,]
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
  [And the Laws of Nature governing Persisance said: "A day of no work is a day of no eating."]

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
  [Then the Narrative of Growth's Mandate stumbled, and our smooth-talking wordsmiths went silent]
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
  [And the hearts of the Egoists were humbled and a teachable moment arose]
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
  [That the Solemn Pretenders (aka Pundits) had no Soutions, and that Overshoot is followed by Descent]
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
  [And that to Nature's Laws do Man belong; that verily we are the Environment.]

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
  [As descent will cometh in the future, as it has for all prior empire builders]
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
  [There are only four things certain since Complex Society arose]
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
  [That Growth is seemingly tasty and Consuption is good for the Bottom Line,]
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
  [And following environmental restoration, remnant populations recover to embrace the Gods of Growth again.]

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
  [And that after we again commit Empire, and the brave new world begins yet again]
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
  [When all men are paid for existing, to work drone-like to consume, and no man must pay for his denial,]
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
  [As surely as Descent follows Overshoot, as surely as Empires will fail,]
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
  [Nature is unkind to those who but listen to the Voices in their Heads!]

Is it possible for those living in a complex society to not worship the Gods of the Market Place? Is it possible to listen to Nature instead of deeply held self-serving humancentric prattle? Is it possible to mold individual behaviour into a plan of actions and avoidances that are oriented toward the maintenance of a viable equilibrium between Man’s demands and Nature’s resources? Is it possible to manage a planetary commons without seeing it as A Planet for the Taking?

On the theme of the centennial, there is Yeats' vision [and comments]:

The Second Coming

by W.B. Yeats, 1919

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
  [We falcons disconnect from our source, the falconer: Mother Nature's laws.]
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
  [Complex societies collapse due to entropy, diminishing returns;]
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
  [Unsustainable growth climaxes and looses conflict upon the world,]
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
  ["A blood-red thing that writhes from out The scenic solitude!"]
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
  [Childhood's hour, "Comes down with the rush of a storm,"—E.A. Poe]
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
  [The sane lack all belief in certitudes, while the worst]
Are full of passionate intensity.
[Are true believers who follow or lead as passionate ideologues.]

Surely some revelation is at hand;
  [Surely some paradigm shift is at hand:]
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
  [Second birth, renormalization, that which may come after the teachable moment.]
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
  [World spirit, Gaia, the collective meme pool of the universe containing all human memories from whom all poetic inspiration comes.]
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
  ["King of Kings am I, Ozymandias." —Diodorus Siculus]
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
  [with a golden mane "And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command," —Percy Shelley, 1818]
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
  ["Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"]
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds [Nature].
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
  [We sleep as the hand of orthodoxy rocks the cradle.]
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
[In late 1930's Yeats saw the Nazis as the rough beast, and today he might dimly view Elon Musk and D. Trump as rough beasts.]
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
  [But the ideology of Short-termism, of Growth for its Own Sake, is the beast, is the Trump, aka The Gods of the Market Place—all hail the Musk, lord Gates, master Zuck.]

A new civilization will be born [the Federation or the Borg? Eloi or Morlocks?], one that will reject what previous generations celebrated [MORE!], and celebrate what previous generations rejected [enough]. Hubris-mankind has lost touch with Nature and has to bear the consequences. Learn to listen to Nature. "Go forth, under the open sky, and list To Nature's teachings, while from all around— Earth and her waters, and the depths of air— Comes a still voice." —William Cullen Bryant