U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- In the tumultuous middle 1960’s, the ideologically progressive media came to full power, with a blame America first, globalist, anti-Christian set of assumptions about reality.
Their answer to the riots in the cities was to “purchase peace” with money and programs. A primary result of this action was the funneling of enormous amounts of cash to people in the progressive cultural knowledge-elite. They did the studies, ran the think-tanks, and administered the programs. The money flowed through their hands, and a great deal, more than went to the poor, stuck with the progressive elite.
It has been ancient wisdom you do not stop extortion by paying for it. You only get more. Rudyard Kipling succinctly explained it in his poem, Dane-Geld, published in 1911.
The United States has been paying “Dane-Geld” to far-left progressives since the middle 1960s. As Kipling predicted, the situation has only gotten worse, much worse. Most of the Dane-Geld goes into the coffers of the anti-American leftists and cultural Marxists. They have become the enemy funded with our tax dollars.
I have modified Kipling’s poem, for a parody which reflects the situation the progressives have placed us in:
Paying Progressive Dane-Geld
It is always a temptation to an entitled population
To call upon a neighbour and to say: —
“We rioted last night—we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.”
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you’ve only to pay ‘em the Dane-geld
And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation, with Orwellian dictation,
To puff and look important and to say: —
“You are oppressed. White men caused this mess.
We will pay you public cash to go away.”
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation to a youthful population,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: —
“We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!”
We have been paying Dane-Geld to progressive ideologists and cultural Marxists for more than 50 years. The cost has been in the trillions. The damage done to our society, moral and Constitutional norms, is incalculable. It must be stopped before our nation is lost. We are very close to losing the nation.
With the election of President Trump, who refuses to play the game, we have a chance to stop paying the Dane-Geld. The leftist run cities and states who have been using other people’s money to buy votes for 50 years, will insist the best thing to do, is to ramp up the Dane-Geld payments.
I am not sure we can survive massive amounts of more progressive Dane-Geld.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
Good job! Kipling would approve.
@DW, Bravo, well done!
There is racial prejudice, there is religious prejudice, there is cultural prejudice, there is work environment prejudice, there is gender prejudice, there is sexual orientation prejudice, and none of it is systemic prejudice. Here at this moment in our history the false argument is systemic racism. We are a country based on the rule of law, which reflects injustices with its application, and in great part because of our Right of freedom to assemble and that of speech to challenge injustices and to persuade those in authority and fellow citizens of the wrongs with an intention to right it, by… Read more »
Hello again Dean, Superb adaptation of Rudyard’s fine declaratory of one aspect of the Human Condition: The lust of money, power, and control! Sadly, our Republic is already dead: the professional politicians keep the majority so distracted with hyperbole and fake crises that our institutions have not yet taken note and laid down to die. There is nothing left to save when you find 58% of those 35 years of age and younger agreeing with the rioting, burning, killing, and destruction of civilization! The balkanization of America has begun in earnest and there is nothing we can do to stop… Read more »
Good reference to a small piece of relevant history. “History” not taught in schools for many decades. Can the USA survive ? … Yes, but it will require that the “majority” learn/relearn and appreciate that the foundation of “freedom” and “rights” is only found in Judeo-Christian values. These “values” include the understanding that there can be no “established religion”; a seeming contradiction for those who have only a cursory understanding of all the history that the words “freedom” and “rights” represent. And, impossible to comprehend for those who believe in the legitimacy of theocracies, and atheists and agnostics who substitute… Read more »
Good poetry expresses a deep kind of feeling. A tightness of the throat that is hard to express. That is how I felt when I read of the numerous companies that pay tribute to Black Lives Matter in order to not get called names. This poem addresses that.