[Redbook7:266-267][19900827:2250g]{Wealth
and Poverty [continued]}[27th
August 1990]
.2250
[continued]
Why isn’t this* ‘danegeld’
–
‘...
If once you have paid him the Danegeld
You never get rid of the
Dane.’**
The answer is simply because
it is sharing rather than giving, and is motivated by Love (r~)
rather than fear (J~)*** It represents, not an O[uter] C[ircle]
reaction to an opponent’s O[uter] C[ircle] action, but an I[nner]
C[ircle] understanding of his condition. It should, of course, ****
have occurred significantly before any threatening outward action of
avarice or lust arises, if it is a genuine loss of self for the sake
of the other.
*[See
last previous entry]
**–Kipling, ‘Danegeld’#
***[sic]
****[ideally?]
#[‘Dane-geld
A.D.
980-1016
IT IS always a temptation
to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour
and to say: –
“We
invaded you last night – we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless
you pay us cash to go away.”
And that is called asking
for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it
explain
That you've only to pay 'em
the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of
the Dane!
It is always a temptation
for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important
and to say: –
“Though
we know we should defeat you,
we have not the time to
meet you.
We will therefore pay you
cash to go away.”
And that is called paying
the Dane-geld;
But
we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid
him the Dane-geld
You
never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put
temptation in the path of any nation,
For
fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested
to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better
policy to say: --
“We
never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No
matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is
oppression and shame,
And
the nation that plays it is lost!”’
(–Rudyard Kipling, c1911)
]
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