The Angry Exile: Green hypocrisy

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

Monday, 21 March 2011

Green hypocrisy

Just a short one this, and I'm afraid you'll have to take my word for it since I'm not about to try to get photographic evidence while driving. Earlier today I was driving behind an ancient and badly maintained bucket of bolts that was smoking badly enough to obscure half a battlefield, which in itself doesn't bother me hugely. Windows up and aircon on recirculate and I caught barely a whiff of it. What did annoy me was what else was being obscured by the smoke, which only became visible when I pulled up behind it at some red lights. The rear of the car was covered in every eco-bandwagon sticker you can imagine.

Now on the one hand it's more right on than scrapping a perfectly serviceable vehicle and replacing it with a new hybrid, constructed at greater energy expense than keeping an existing car going. No, that's fine.

But dig your hand in your pocket and do some fucking maintenance, you thoughtless, polluting, anti-social arsehole.

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microdave 58p · 731 weeks ago

And how many times do you see "Eco Activists" turn up in an ancient VW microbus, complete with a low compression engine which has probably been round the clock 3 times, and struggles to achieve 25mpg?

My decrepit Panda does, at least, still have healthy compressions, uses no oil, and easily complies with the MOT emissions test.

And talking of VW's - I wouldn't mind having a play in this one.. .http://www.anytuning.com/volkswagen-t5-van-with-558ps-porsche-996-engine-by-th-auto/ At least the smoke behind it won't be oil, but burnt tyre rubber!!

1 reply · active 731 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 731 weeks ago

Oh, Christ, yeah. Spare us the fucking 'Dubs - vans or Beetles - just because every other hippy had one in the sixties. Especially the Beetles being as it was a car designed for the fucking Nazis. Hey, wait... maybe not ;)

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Ed Butt · 731 weeks ago

You can bet the driver will be one of those self righteous idiots whining about how we should all switch off electrical appliances for 'earth hour' on 26th March. Like an hour is going to make any difference.
My recent post Evidence As If You Needed Any That All The Green Movement Are Insane

1 reply · active 731 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 731 weeks ago

Oh, I'm sure of it. Like your linked recent post, by the way. Over the last couple of years I've written a few thousand words on what a load of bollocks Dirt Hour is, most of them in this post. The more people calling bullshit on it the better in my opinion.

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Mark · 731 weeks ago

On "earth hour" here is what I do. I live on a hill so my windows face everyone below. When I see all the lights go out down below, I turn all mine on up to full brightness and let them shine out over the neighborhoods below, like a beacon. If we were allowed to operate our own spotlights at home, the kind used for theatre grand openings, I would do that too, just to draw attention to my conspicious power usage and nose snubbing to this ridiculous "earth hour", more precisely known as paying homage and respect to the UN, one world government and basically anti-christ ideas from hell.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 731 weeks ago

Being a bit of a tightarse I admire it but would only do likewise if I could figure out a way of getting Fairfax Media and the WWF to foot the power bill. Oh, and not living on a hill I guess it would need a slightly different form. Perhaps something like the Bat Signal, but instead of a bat projecting the outline of an enormous clenched hand with one finger raised vertically. I don't think I need to say which one. :)

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nisakiman 54p · 731 weeks ago

Had a beetle for a while (Hertz contract car) back in the late 60s. Could never work out where the fucking corners of the car were. Fucking terrible design. The one I had didn't smoke, but it did seem to pick up parking tickets like a magnet attracts iron filings, which is a kind of pollution I guess.

2 replies · active 731 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 731 weeks ago

Is that why they all got dented so quickly? I thought it was just evidence that hippies can't drive and smoke pot at the same time. :)

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nisakiman 54p · 731 weeks ago

You could have a point there, although I managed ok... B)

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