We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Samizdata quote of the day

O Lord our God arise

Scatter her enemies

And make them fall

Confound their politics

Frustrate their knavish tricks

On Thee our hopes we fix

God save us all

– the little-used second verse of the National Anthem, quoted in a 2015 Independent article entitled “God Save the Queen lyrics: The troubling words of the National Anthem that are being ignored”.

To be clear, this is not the verse dating from 1745 containing the line “Rebellious Scots to crush”. That was never official anyway. I just thought the lines about politics and knavish tricks somehow seemed appropriate to our current situation.

4 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • William H. Stoddard

    Funny how those verses disappear. The American national anthem has

    And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
    That the havoc of war, and the battle’s confusion,
    A home and a country should leave us no more?
    There blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.

    But that’s hardly remembered, even on the rare occasions when more than the first verse is sung.

  • Funny how those verses disappear. (William H. Stoddard, February 10, 2019 at 7:52 pm)

    Whereas the sentiments of the Internationale

    Ils sauront bientôt que nos balles
    Sont pour nos propres généraux.

    just keep getting more and more welcome to the woke.

  • Paul Marks

    It is an excellent verse – I fully support it, and for all the reasons that traitors of the “Independent” find it “troubling”.

  • James Hargrave

    I last sang it at school ca. 1970.