Nimrod

Hope

Washington DC 19 JAN 2025

As a strategist I am educated by both books and experience to look first to the worse case scenario and to prepare for it. Consequentially, I understand that I have been overactive this week and not exactly the font of optimism. I feel like I want to get every last warning in before the fall. Also, I don't do Hollywood happy endings. There was no foreseeable happy ending in Berlin in 1933.

I also know that some readers may interpret surrender in my musings. Surrender to the overwhelming might of the enemy, as my hero WSC put it at a similarly dark hour. I am not advocating for surrender. The problem is you can't fight unless you know the enemy you face, it's size, strength, support and appeal. I want people to grasp that what we face is not normal and will not be dislodged lightly.

I have warned so that preparations can be made to prevent the enemy from rising. Having failed in that task, I escalated my rhetoric to try and get people to understand that the enemy inside the house was of a character that could only be grasped in historical terms. Alas America is the most ahistorical country on earth. It is about to pay dearly for its fascination with tech at the detriment of its knowledge of history.

Ironically, as what I have warned about becomes manifest, now my warnings are slowly spreading. It's not exactly viral but it feels: Too little. Too late. Too melancholy.

In my warnings, I merely wanted to convey the gravity of the situation. So much noise is generated by people who have no clue about history, so they just blithely say optimistic things that are counterproductive if not dangerous.

Sometimes when I fail to communicate, as evidentially I have over these past 4 years, I turn to art.

As we stand on the precipice of a new feudalism emanating from the very torch of democracy, I take solace in Elgar's Nimrod. It is an instrumental piece that has been put to Latin in this stunning rendition by what appears to be simply a group of friends in central London.

“Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis”

"Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them."

Many see Nimrod as a lament. I feel that theme, but to my mind at least, it is subordinate to a hopeful light that shines throughout its musical phraseology. It seems honest about the contingent nature of life and the future.

I offer this glorious music to you in two forms. Both sacred. The second is the massed bands in London on Poppy Day. A time when we reflect on the sacrifice of our countrymen and dedicate ourselves to making something positive of the gift of freedom we have been bequeathed. The poppy is blood soaked but beautiful and resilient… it emerged from trenches soaked in industrial and chemical destruction, to shine in the peaceful sun once the guns fell silent. Never has a greater metaphor existed for so poignabt a message.

The lyrics, combined with the stirring melody of "Nimrod," create a sense of reverence and solemnity, while also offering a glimmer of hope and solace in the face of grief and loss.

After the midterms, I sat on the top step of the Lincoln memorial on a sunny day and played Nimrod on repeat feeling a weight had been lifted from our collective shoulders. As Americans and foreigners swirled around in the sunlight it seemed impossible that we would return to the path of lies, hatred, manipulation, and destruction.

Then over time I saw even greater hope as new leaders came forward who would fill the void.

Yet incredibly we turned backwards into the night.

Accordingly, I am reminded of this scene from the Longest Day. We will have to wait. You don't have to speak French to understand every utterance in this clip.

Nimrod is my flag. I will hide it from the enemy for as many years as I need until the day of liberation. I don't think I will make it to that day. It will not be 4 years from now. They won't give it up that easily. If they don't kill us all through sheer nuclear stupidity, maybe one day someone will remember this note and play Nimrod once again on the steps of the monument to a unifying leader who gave his all to this great nation. If they do, I hope they wear a poppy. It will be our secret sign of defiance, hope and triumph.