Whom do leaders spurn most: themselves or the peoples they rule or some mythic nation/country in the au-delà...
True, a Myth-and-a-half ever since dim Antiquity
“Breathes there the Man with Soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said
This is my own, my Native Land”
True, a myth-and-a-half ever since dim antiquity
Who breeds and holds the brood in binding sanctity
Isn’t s/he who sows and let grow blood ties in family
Don’t leaders all use the ruse of saluting country
La Patrie is never the Peoples’ victory
They lay their lives down for their leaders’ greater glory
The plot of land’s where the Soul ignites anonymity
In the au-delà is not country mere pure vanity
Leaders lay wreathes at monuments for tv publicity
Upstarts win lone battle or two through freakish strategy
And let expanding borders be besieged by many enemy
Yet end-up somehow by losing the Imperial Army
Shouldn’t he who seeks to foist himself on a polity
Be required to pass the test of Ego-immunity
No vaccination nor re-inoculation would be free
From an overdose of megalomaniac frenzy
If only there were an inoculation. But the affinity of country and family has been the watchword since as you describe, dim antiquity. And still so prevalent today.
First, the League of Nations was put down in favor of world wars fueled by nationalism and megalomania, scapegoating the "inferior" of the species. And then, the United Nations was emasculated and beholden to the particular interests of the countries holding place on the Security Council.
Finally, any attempt at a new world order or internationalization like the European Union gets thwarted by old ego superiority like the British Crown and Pax Britannica, egos galore.
Like my poem, When Will They Ever Learn? It seems a sensible way of dealing with all of the people of the world in a uniform way is still a ways off even in the 21st-century.
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First, the League of Nations was put down in favor of world wars fueled by nationalism and megalomania, scapegoating the "inferior" of the species. And then, the United Nations was emasculated and beholden to the particular interests of the countries holding place on the Security Council.
Finally, any attempt at a new world order or internationalization like the European Union gets thwarted by old ego superiority like the British Crown and Pax Britannica, egos galore.
Like my poem, When Will They Ever Learn? It seems a sensible way of dealing with all of the people of the world in a uniform way is still a ways off even in the 21st-century.
You have said it well… Are they reading?
Ron