I love Humanity in all
Its misery and need;
I love those suffering in thrall,
Resenting others’ greed;
I love the spiritual link,
Uniting all who breathe and think,
Together standing on the brink,
Until I give the call.
I love the Populace throughout
Its genders and its races;
I love Diversity about
In safely distant places;
I love downtrodden people who
Will do what they are told to do,
As we, their betters, always knew,
And not just screw about.
I love the Hungry just so long
As I don’t have to see ‘em;
You say that we’re aloof or wrong,
But would you wish to be ‘em?
Would not our world the better stay,
As we design that brighter day,
And meanwhile they’d just go away
Until we bang the gong?
I hate Humanity when it’s
Assuming airs and graces;
When all those nameless, faceless bits
Are given names and faces!
Their loss of anonymity
Demands responsibility,
Disrupting ideology,
And, frankly, it’s the pits!
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We have a great appreciation for the thought of Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot, Irving Babbitt and Christopher Dawson, among other imaginative conservatives. However, some of us look at the state of Western culture and the American Republic and see a huge dark cloud which seems ready to unleash a storm that may well wash away what we most treasure of our inherited ways. Others focus on the silver lining which may be found in the next generation of traditional conservatives who have been inspired by Dr. Kirk and his like. We hope that The Imaginative Conservative answers T.S. Eliot’s call to “redeem the time, redeem the dream.”
This reminds one of a similar verse by G.K. Chesterton, “The World State”:
Oh, how I love Humanity,
With love so pure and pringlish,
And how I hate the horrid French,
Who never will be English!
The International Idea,
The largest and the clearest,
Is welding all the nations now,
Except the one that’s nearest.
This compromise has long been known,
This scheme of partial pardons,
In ethical societies
And small suburban gardens—
The villas and the chapels where
I learned with little labour
The way to love my fellow-man
And hate my next-door neighbour.
Thank you, both! Mr. Masty, I very much enjoyed the nimbleness of your words and images! Very creative and amusing! And, Hipster Conservative, I do always enjoy Chesterton! This poem would seem to date from before World War I, before England watched Germany break its treaties with Belgium to invade France. (Perhaps the Germans read too much in to England’s historical dislike for France?)
No the Germans didn’t read too much into it, the Kaiser was just really foolish and bad at politics. By the way Hipster Conservative has a Facebook page that you might enjoy.
“The villas and the chapels where
I learned with little labour
The way to love my fellow-man
And hate my next-door neighbour.”
Truer words were never writ
To describe the Left-wing twit.