The Second Coming BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
I always come back to this poem, if poem is the right word. Warning or nightmare or terrible vision of the future.
“Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”
That line always seems apt for whatever the present-day atrocities. Maybe because we unconsciously buy into the progressive propaganda that the arc of history is on our side. And when the arc starts shifting away from our plans, we’re shocked at the failure of history to behave and these surprises appear to be anarchy. Well, no one’s buying into that arc of history jazz this morning except Lindsay Graham. For him the answer to every failing war is another war to distract from the failure. The wars and atrocities are starting to pile up nicely and even the moron in the White House must be getting nervous about how few tanks, artillery shells and Bradley Fighting Vehicles are still in reserve and we haven’t even begun our next forever war. But what am I worried about? We have all those nice shiny ICBMs just waiting for their targets.
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.”
That’s right. When the center is rotted out a strong wind will blow the tree down. Time to start over from first principles. No more empires, no more foreign adventures. Marshal the strength to restore the health of the people who make up this country before we think about fighting Russians and Chinese and whoever else is on the regime hit list. Maybe if the Pentagon is in need of employment, they can take on the Mexican cartels in New Jersey and Arizona. Or if that’s too daunting maybe they can try to reclaim downtown Baltimore and Washington DC from the gang bangers and car jackers. They don’t have combat drones yet as far as I know.
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
Who would even try to deny these charges. Look at our leaders! And worse, look at the people. Those two statements sum it up beautifully. Joe Biden and Antifa.
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
This one just seems too prophetic of all. Look at Europe and even America and tell me how it will resist a reign of terror with the leaders we have currently in charge. After our post 9-11 rampage in Afghanistan and Iraq what has been improved in the Middle East? All we managed to do is arm the world with our abandoned equipment and show our enemies that we have no idea what we’re doing. And now we send billions to the mullahs in Iran to arm the Palestinians. We might as well ship them a few ICBMs so we can get the main event started.
Maybe the end of history will turn into the end of us. Unless this country wakes up and takes the reins of power away from the lunatics currently running things, the cities of this country will be indistinguishable from Gaza and Beirut. We let in millions of hostile strangers and think there will be no consequences. These people want what we have and they will take it and make us live by their ways. And even the LGBTQ might look back on the intolerant right of the 1980s like heaven on earth compared to the rough beast about to be born in the desert.