Let’s start the week with some poetic inspiration.
The excellent Netflix series “The Crown” launched its fourth season yesterday, with Scully herself, Gillian Anderson, delivering a brilliant portrayal of “the Iron Lady,” Margaret Thatcher. At one point, Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Coleman) warns the Prime Minister that she is making enemies, and she responds by reciting from memory this poem, which I had never heard or read before.
One more thing: Since I posted the poem, it has been the most visited post of the more than 12,000 on Ethics Alarms. If you came for the poem, why not stay for the ethics? Look around, read the comment policies, check out the categories (to your right.) This isn’t the only enlightening post you’ll find here, or even the most enlightening.
You Have No Enemies
You have no enemies, you say?
Alas! my friend, the boast is poor;
He who has mingled in the fray
Of duty, that the brave endure,
Must have made foes! If you have none,
Small is the work that you have done.
You’ve hit no traitor on the hip,
You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip,
You’ve never turned the wrong to right,
You’ve been a coward in the fight.
Mackay is not well-known in the U.S., and he was a marginal literary figure in England. But in 2019, a confidante of Thatcher’s revealed that she turned to the writings of Mackay for solace and inspiration, particularly “Enemies,” which she kept in her scrapbook.
I’d describe the poem as a simpler, more direct predecessor of Theodore’s Roosevelt’s famous “The Man in the Arena” speech. (Teddy did go on.) Mackay’s poem has the advantage of being suitable for children, who need to be taught, as do almost all of our current politicians, that popularity isn’t everything.
[Note to first time Ethics Alarms visitors: You came for the poem; why not stay for the ethics and the lively discussions? You can find out more about the blog here. Welcome!]
Ethics Alarms 
Ironically, in the 1966 semi-antiwar (I say semi because it’s still got plenty of action and by the end of the film the action fans had what they came for) film “The Sand Pebbles,” one of the last things that Steve McQueen’s rebellious Jake Holman says before he tells by-the-book Lt. Collins (Richard Crenna) to leave, that he is going to stay with Candice Bergen’s idealistic Shirley Eckert is “I don’t got no more enemies.” Unfortunately the enemy didn’t get the memo.
There’s no need to gratuitously make enemies by being an asshole and a bully, as a good chunk of the civil rights and plaintiffs’ bar could stand to learn. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to do it because your first loyalty has to be to your client, not good relations with other attorneys. That said, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if doing so costs you later. You need an adjournment? Mmmhmm, that’s almost as funny as the time you fought me on that adjournment when I was going away on vacation. Go to hell. You need me to throw in a few bucks to make this settlement happen? Mmmhmm, I still remember the time you were nasty to me in that deposition. I won’t put a dime on this.
However, I agree that popularity isn’t everything, and those who pursue it and value it more than being principled and getting the job done are foolish.
One of my favorite, and most prescient, quotes is attributed to Mackay from his Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds
Men, It Has Been Well Said, Think In Herds; It Will Be Seen That They Go Mad In Herds, While They Only Recover Their Senses Slowly, And One By One.
The whole Trump era has brought to my attention that more than a few of the people I thought were my friends were in fact enemies. Simply because, evidently, I was not apoplectically opposed to Trump’s even existing. Such a strange thing to have happen as a nearly seventy year-old. Depressing, actually, when I think about it.
Supporting President Trump means not cutting him a new @$$hole at every turn.
I wonder whether even though Trump will be off the stage emails from people will still contain the evidently obligatory snide comment about something Trump related. I’m just not sure Trump derangement will clear up very quickly. Its victims seem so comfortable in their symptoms.
Durham seems to show that Hillary was truly involved in an insurrection against Trump, going so far as to manufacture and create the “Big Lie” that Trump was a stooge of Putin and a Russian agent. The poison of this, by Hillary and her campaign team, did a horrendous amount of damage to our faith in American elections (and folks are worried by Jan. 6th), not to mention the hatred directed at Trump voters as a result. Considering that Obama and Biden knew that Hillary was manufacturing lies against Trump, and spying as well by hacking into Trump’s computers while he was a presidential candidate and later on as president, do any of these characters, besides Hillary, bear some responsibility for this criminality against a sitting president. What say you, progressives, is it a crime to hack into another person’s computer….and to “create” false evidence via that hack?
When I was new, an old faculty member told me that he never voted in favor of tenure or promotion of anyone who didn’t have a few nasty student evaluations. He said that if none of the students was unhappy with the class, then you weren’t pushing any of them to learn the most they could and become better. That has stuck with me all these years. I am usually criticized when I express that opinion. There are very few faculty with any negative student evaluation comments.
Hi, does anyone know if this is found in a book somewhere? Would like to purchase a copy if available…
Thanks!
Tim
Awesome. Thanks so much Jack!
Hi Jack, got the book in yesterday and couldn’t find the poem.. would you happen to have a copy and a page number? If not, no worries. Thanks!
What? I’m so sorry…my information was that the book had it. Email me your address and I’ll reimburse you. Again, I apologize.
No worries at all! I can return the book so no issues there. Have a happy thanksgiving!