Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Public (and other) Servants
Words that lie
So much of language today is comprised of words that carry little or nothing of their once common sense. Faith, truth, love—even so once-innocuous a word as “gay”—have all been virtually stripped of once meaningful content, or even turned on their heads entirely!
This is not a new phenomenon, of course, but post-modern relativism still holds sway in the heads of those committed to sub-literate stupidity, so it seems more common today for many to co-opt words with virtuous content and, it seems, deliberately corrupt them in attempts to legitimize unvirtuous conduct (“truth” stands out in the list above as one such; it seems that whenever pseudo-intellectuals talk about truth it is either from the perspective that truth is individual and relative or that their lies are true; “gay” used in referring to homosexual behavior is one such lie presented as true, of course).
A word much corrupted today is “servant.” Many who proclaim themselves to be servants of others seem to do so with the deliberate intention of decieving. We have all known such. I’ll reserve this space for those in the political class who refer to themselves as public servants.
What liars!
Kipling, in the lil ditty I referred to a couple of days ago, rightly pegged these people as one—he claimed chief!—evil facing mankind in all ages. Since you may not have read that poem recently (not even as recently as when I posted a link to it *LOL*), here it is in its entirety. Notice Kipling consciously invokes Solomon’s wisdom via typical Proverbial form.
“A Servant When He Reigneth”
Three things make earth unquiet
And four she cannot brook
The godly Agur counted them
And put them in a book —
Those Four Tremendous Curses
With which mankind is cursed;
But a Servant when He Reigneth
Old Agur entered first.
An Handmaid that is Mistress
We need not call upon.
A Fool when he is full of Meat
Will fall asleep anon.
An Odious Woman Married
May bear a babe and mend;
But a Servant when He Reigneth
Is Confusion to the end.
His feet are swift to tumult,
His hands are slow to toil,
His ears are deaf to reason,
His lips are loud in broil.
He knows no use for power
Except to show his might.
He gives no heed to judgment
Unless it prove him right.
Because he served a master
Before his Kingship came,
And hid in all disaster
Behind his master’s name,
So, when his Folly opens
The unnecessary hells,
A Servant when He Reigneth
Throws the blame on some one else.
His vows are lightly spoken,
His faith is hard to bind,
His trust is easy boken,
He fears his fellow-kind.
The nearest mob will move him
To break the pledge he gave —
Oh, a Servant when he Reigneth
Is more than ever slave!
Rudyard Kipling
Kipling may well be right in labeling soi-disant “public servants” (as well as the civil “servants” who carry out their dicta) who cling to their office, commit crime after crime against society via harmful, inctrusive, tyrannical legislation as the vilest affliction of mankind. Oh, that we could have an electorate that kept track of every single abuse of power by the political class and their minions in various civil service “work” and hold the political class—and their minions in the civil service—responsible for the abuses of power they create and actively support and engage in on a day-to-day basis! If every time a citizen is subjected to harrassment by some so-called servant for committing the “crime” of “maiastas, loosely defined as ‘insufficient groveling before the agents of the state…” [*]
Such “servants” would better serve, IMO, after an intimate consultation with Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether, after which it could be determined whether they make a better submarine or torch… (Less harsh, I might add, than Arnold Amorie’s famous prescription for the citizens of Bezier in 1209, viz**., “Kill them all. God will know His own.” *heh*)
*sigh*
But that will not do in a society of sheep eager to be shorn… as long as their neighbor’s grass is made available by their shepherds. (IOW, We have the servants we have because of our own greed, laziness and stupidity. Ain’t cosmic justice weird that way?)
“Remember Martha!” is the true battle cry that is heir to “Live Free or Die!” and sums up nicely many of the charges laid at King George’s door by the Declaration of Independence (charges I dare say less than 1% of the electorate have any knowledge of).
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“The power of the state ought to be reserved for indictable crimes — at least in a republic. In an Empire the main crime is maiastas, loosely defined as ‘insufficient groveling before the agents of the state.'” J.E.P. (Speaking about Martha Stewart’s indictment and conviction for “lying”—NOT under oath—about not having committed a crime that the feds tacitly admit was not a crime. I say “admit” because they did not indict her or seek to pursue her for the “crime” she said she did not commit. Remember Martha: you too can be charged with any damned thing these “servants” want if you do not sufficiently grovel at their feet whenever and wherever you come into contact with them.)