• We Don't KILL.
• Our Way is STRONGER
and
More DISCIPLINED
than The Assassins' Way.
• It requires more SKILL.
Buckle Yourself in,
Damian.
“There is a common belief among the more left-leaning, politically active Blakeans that the conservative, patriotic right doesn’t really like Blake, as they claim they do.
They just like the hymn ‘Jerusalem’, the argument goes, which they fail to understand.
Yet the crowd at the unveiling of Blake’s grave has made me question this.
Those people, from all walks of life, were there because they had a connection to the man and his works that I could only see as genuine.
They may not all have been attracted to the same aspects of him, but who is to say that some aspects are more valid than others?
The idea that Blake is for Everybody is not an idea that I am willing to discard just yet.
There is a strain in Blake, particularly in his early work, that could be called patriotism or nationalism, and which at times verges on jingoism.
In ‘A War Song to Englishmen’, for example, he reacts to the realisation that he will be killed in battle fighting for His Country by deciding that His Life is a fair price to pay for England :
Why sinks my heart, why faultereth my tongue?
Had I three lives, I’d die in such a cause,
And rise, with ghosts, over the well-fought field.
Prepare, prepare. […]
Alfred shall smile, and make his harp rejoice;
The Norman William, and the learned
Clerk, And Lion Heart, and black brow’d
Edward, with His loyal queen shall rise, and welcome us!
Prepare, Prepare. Perhaps
Blake’s most striking expression of Nationalist Pride is the satirical verse that begins ‘When Klopstock England defied’.
The Klopstock in question was Blake’s near contemporary, the German poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, who is best known for his epic work Der Messias (‘The Messiah’).
Blake’s verse was written in response to a minor slight Klopstock made about The English Language.
In response, ‘English Blake’, as he refers to himself, retaliates with an act of what can only be described as English voodoo shit magic.
He starts by taking a crap under a poplar tree at Lambeth, but suddenly stands and spins round nine times, much to the disgust of the watching heavens.
This act magically constricts Klopstock’s bowels, causing him a great deal of pain, until Blake graciously undoes the spell.
He then concludes:
If Blake could do this when he rose up from shite
What might he not do if he sat down to write
Yet as Blake matures, he quickly moves from a Love of His Own Country to a Love of All.
He makes this evolution, from nationalism to the declaration that ‘Everything that lives is Holy!’, seem like a very natural progression.
In ‘The Divine Image’ from Songs of Innocence, he concludes:
And all must love the human form,
In heathen, Turk, or Jew;
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.
In divided Brexit Britain, we usually think of Nationalism and Internationalism as opposites.
Both sides tend to see their opponents in oversimplified or caricatured terms.
Remainers portray the Leavers’ Love of Country as inherently racist, and invariably connected to issues of Immigration, Cultural Purity and about Who Decides Who Can be Said to ‘Belong’ Here.
Leavers, in contrast, portray that Sense of Belonging to a Place as honest and natural, and a Thing to be Defended.
For Remainers to deny that side of Us is to deny Human Nature, they argue.
These opposing positions can appear to be irreconcilable.
Blake, however, had a great love of opposites. He saw them as a necessary step in moving forwards.
As he wrote in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,
‘Without Contraries is no progression.
Attraction and Repulsion,
Reason and Energy,
Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence.’
Or more enigmatically,
‘Opposition
is
True Friendship.’
For Blake, the deep connection to The Place around him was The Soil in which a larger, Spiritual Love put down roots and grew to encircle The World.
From this perspective, if you don’t have Love for Your Home and Neighbours, then any proclamations of Love for those further away is suspect.
It is like someone who sees themselves as A Good Person because they express concern for an abstract group such as Homeless People or Refugees, yet who is a poor friend to the people they know and are in a position to help.
And, conversely, if you condemn Groups of Strangers far away, then how True is Your Love for Your Home and Neighbours really?
Your antipathy to Other People has to come from somewhere, and if it has not grown from Your Experiences with Those That You Do Know, then where has it come from?
A sense of connection to Your Land, it can be argued, is necessary for, not opposed to, a deep respect for People of all cultures and creeds.
This position goes past the framing of Nationalism and Internationalism, or Leave and Remain, as Our Primary Duality.
Instead, it Divides The World into Those Who Delight in What They Love, and Those Who Focus on What They Hate.
This, it turns out, can be a far more useful guide to navigating our Politics and Culture. "
