Gods of the Copybook Headings

[compliments of Roger Cohen (and Kipling) of the New York Times last week]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/opinion/06cohen.html

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.

And what are the qualities of these “Gods of the Copybook Headings?” The fourth verse sets them out.

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.

The seventh verse reads:

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.”