The Angry Exile: There's no such thing as too low for the Righteous.

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Tuesday, 14 September 2010

There's no such thing as too low for the Righteous.

I was looking through YouTube for something else that I thought might interest Dick Puddlecote and JuliaM, something about ads here in Oz by tobacco firms and retailers campaigning against moves such as hiding the fags out of sight and forcing manufacturers to use plain packaging. What I stumbled across by accident has temporarily driven the thought from my mind and left me near speechless with rage. What I stumbled across shows how low the Righteous are prepared to stoop, and perhaps a hint at how some of them are starting to view smokers.

What I stumbled across was this:

I'm not remotely a religious man but free speech is practically holy in my book, and since I can't bear hearing anything along the lines of 'Oh, I'm all for free speech, but...' coming from anyone else it's difficult for me to say that he shouldn't be allowed to do that or YouTube should take it down. But in the same vein I can say that I think the creator of that is the lowest kind of hectoring, nannying whiney little authoritarian there is and that this comparison isn't merely scraping the barrel but smashing through the bottom and digging a hole.* Is he seriously comparing a voluntary activity which carries health risks to those who choose to partake with an act of nearly unprecedented mass murder by 19 wild eyed religious fanatics for some twisted idea of glorifying their god?

If you work for a tobacco company or have shares in one that's how they've been thinking of you. Because of all this crap about nth hand smoke, if you are a smoker that's how they're now starting to think of you. And if you're not a smoker and you fail to condemn those who do, how they will soon begin to think of us? If tobacco companies and smokers are being compared with hijackers, terrorists and mass murderers will those of us who say 'let them smoke, I don't mind, they're not hurting me' be seen as apologists? I think we will, I really do.

9/11 for fuck's sake. There's no comparison at all. A small number of Islamist headcases might like to take my life, but a vastly larger number of self-righteous übercunts in our own society think as the creator of this video thinks. Oh yes, I know who I should really fear and who I should really fight. It's the man on the other side of the street twitching and waving theatrically if anyone with a cigarette comes within ten metres of him, and even more, the bastards who pull his strings and manipulate his thoughts and twist his face into expressions of hate and disgust toward people whom he can no longer even think of as people. They are our most dangerous enemies, and they don't want to settle for our lives - they want our thoughts and our souls.

Well, they can have one of my thoughts gratis:

Never! Now fuck off.

* And thinking along those lines I suggest anyone who feels so inclined pop along to YouTube and exercise your freedom of speech in the comments for that video. However, I would suggest not complaining to YouTube in case they pull it and stop more people seeing the minds of the anti-tobacco zealots. And maybe grab a copy of it just in case someone decides to dispose of the evidence.

6 comments:

Dick Puddlecote said...: Good (or evil, actually) find. Cross posted at mine. ;); 15 September 2010 at 03:50
microdave said...: I've put it up on EyeTube for you. Let me know if you're not happy, and I'll remove it.

http://eyetube.me/play/Politics/Smoke_Towers___Anti_-_Tobacco_clip; 15 September 2010 at 04:42
John M said...: Ironically by linking to the video you'll play a part in increasing the views of thier 'viral' and they'll use the counter to argue how successful the ad was.; 15 September 2010 at 06:35
Angry Exile said...: @DP - I thought the theme seemed vaguely familiar. I must have seen the ASH NZ thing at yours before.

@microdave - fine by me. I was going to put it up there myself anyway, though so far my attempts to load video to EyeTube haven't worked and I'm not sure why.

@John - that thought did occur to me but I think that even if they did tell themselves that showing the wider world how they see other people will do them more harm than good.; 15 September 2010 at 09:14
JuliaM said...: "...it's difficult for me to say that he shouldn't be allowed to do that or YouTube should take it down. But in the same vein I can say that I think the creator of that is the lowest kind of hectoring, nannying whiney little authoritarian there is and that this comparison isn't merely scraping the barrel but smashing through the bottom and digging a hole."

Spot on. I wouldn't call for it to be banned either, but I'd encourage everyone to show their utter contempt for the loon who created it.

Hell, it's enough to make me take up smoking!; 15 September 2010 at 14:45
Angry Exile said...: I understand that, JuliaM. I don't miss smoking at all and have never regretted giving up, and in fact the last year or two I did was habit rather than enjoyment, but pricks like this really make me want to light one up just to piss them off.; 15 September 2010 at 17:12