…Kipling and all. My original draft after the fold; guess I shouldn’t have decided to wait until tonight to record the song.
In the meantime, here’s a decent tune to sing the Kipling poem to.
As you may recall, yesterday there was a bit of a… to-do about an Oakland, CA Mens’ Wearhouse deciding to stand with the Occupy Oakland rioters. Admittedly, at the time the Occupy Oakland rioters had not actually started rioting, but really: it was hardly what you’d call a surprise.
It is always a temptation
to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say:
“We invaded you 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
for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say:
“Though we know we should defeat you,
we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you 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
in the path of any nation,
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 plays it is lost!”
(Pictures – and obvious observation – here)
Eh, paying the Dane Geld makes sense if what you need is time.