Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1800s)
Others claim this idiom, ‘vengeance is a dish best
served cold’ originates in the French novel
Les Liasons Dangereuses 1782
Star Trek fans attribute it as a Klingon adage!
In the 4th century BC, the famous Chinese
military strategist Sun Tzu reportedly said ‘if you wait by the river long
enough the bodies of your enemies float by’
Old Testament Biblical scholars will point out that
God reserves the act of vengeance for himself.
“Vengeance is mine… saith the lord” Romans 12;19
I’m more New Testament in the love-&-forgiveness
bracket. However, I’m posting an old doodle this week because it makes the idea
of vengeance kind of interesting and cosmic – if you are prepared to go off the
scale a little. Take a long enough view, it seems, and in more modern
vernacular – ‘what goes around comes around’.
And – yes – it’s unfair that everyone suffers. It’s
the same in war, geological disasters, famine, plague and pestilence.
A while ago I put up the doodle below and a few
friends were a little confused. Why 2016 (you crazy woman)?
My view is simple (I’m a simple person) I see that
in any act of extreme cruelty, unfairness, deliberate wrong the essence of its
undoing seems to be in-built. This is why – rather than being destroyed – bad
people/things – often implode – empires especially. I know this is one of my zanier
theories but if you can’t have crazy theories in a world where Trump and
Johnson are regarded as leadership material – when can you?
So – to take the two most obvious and immediate
examples – the UK and the US – both have historic wealth and prosperity and international
clout and credibility built on the misery of slavery (see last week’s helpful
composition towards the BBC prom [I wonder if they’ll be bringing the black and
white minstrel show back any time soon?]) and either old style
colonialism or neo-colonialism. What I observed in the joint political and
social tragedies of 2016 – the election of Trump and the vote for the self-annihilation
of Brexit, was a sort of payback of racism - racism that has been allowed to
linger into the present day and fester in our institutions.
Many were astounded by the election of an overtly
racist, misogynist criminal like Trump. Many this side of the pond were
astounded that the decades of anti-foreigner rhetoric of the right-wing media and
the anti-EU sentiment of populist politicians, served up results. The main
result being that the serial failure Boris Johnson became the turd at the top
of the overflowing sewer of British politics.
My simple analysis is that both have led to the
wrecking of the reputations of these hitherto highly regarded nations. Albeit
that – certainly in Britain’s case - it was already living on past ‘glories’
all the sadder that the advantages are being squandered.
Brexit fuelled by illogical jingoism (racism) – like
winter – is coming and the social and economic carnage will make Covid look
like a walk in the park.
Trump may be ousted from the White House in November
– whether he leaves is another matter - but it will take the US far longer to
recover from his scorched earth approach than it took him to ruin the country and
it may not be possible to put the riffle-toting white supremacists back in
their underground bunkers any time soon.
The US is possibly closer to the long slog of the
turn-a-round than the UK but neither country will be the unassuaged power it
was before 2016 – thanks to the racism inherent and inbuilt into both societies
that was never fully exorcised.
How else can you lay this out other than universal
payback?
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