The Bellman Is Ringing

There is a curious incident in American literature, an incident that leaves many literate children snickering at an absurd situation. I am writing of the Bellman’s bizarre odyssey, in Lewis Carroll’s, “The Hunting Of The Snark”; however, this short epic poem of adventure and tragedy could be set in modern times, for it is eerily similar to our present situation. Yes, when we consider the absurdity of selling guns to drug cartels, and after hundreds of people are killed with those same weapons, proclaiming the need for tighter gun control, and giving a failed auto company to its union, with a cash infusion greater than our foreign graft (aid) and after liquidating all Republican dealerships, then proclaiming the still failing auto company a success, and stating out loud the need for doing the same thing to all American businesses during a campaign, the nonsensical verse of the “The Hunting Of The Snark” begins to seem logical.

The Bellman himself they all praised to the skies —
 Such a carriage, such ease and such grace!
Such solemnity, too! One could see he was wise,
 The moment one looked in his face!

He had bought a large map representing the sea,
 Without the least vestige of land:
And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be
 A map they could all understand.

“What’s the good of Mercator’s North Poles and Equators,
 Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?”
So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply
 “They are merely conventional signs!

“Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!
 But we’ve got our brave Captain to thank:
(So the crew would protest) “that he’s bought us the best —
 A perfect and absolute blank!”

This was charming, no doubt; but they shortly found out
 That the Captain they trusted so well
Had only one notion for crossing the ocean,
 And that was to tingle his bell.

He was thoughtful and grave — but the orders he gave
 Were enough to bewilder a crew.
When he cried “Steer to starboard, but keep her head larboard!”
 What on earth was the helmsman to do?

Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes:
 A thing, as the Bellman remarked,
That frequently happens in tropical climes,
 When a vessel is, so to speak, “snarked.”

But the principal failing occurred in the sailing,
 And the Bellman, perplexed and distressed,
Said he had hoped, at least, when the wind blew due East,
 That the ship would not travel due West!

Lewis Carroll, The Hunting Of The Snark, 1876

The idea of a blank map is ambiguous and preposterous, for who would be so foolish; the concept is one for children and their imaginations. However the poem is not suitable for children. It is a bewildering story of strange men hunting a mythological beast and leaves the reader in a bewildering void.

We can only marvel at the imagination of a child, so fertile and willing to accept the implausible: how easy it is to betray the trust of a child and tell them the most outrageous falsehoods. It is easy because the trusting mind of a child will work to find a method to rationalize an outrageous story and bring it into the concept of a child’s reality.

In this engaging and tragic nonsense poem, there is an inadequacy of language, but the author relies on symbolism. The blank map is the beginning of a nightmare for any man of the sea and the Bellman’s contradictory navigational and sailing orders are all the more confusing to a sailor. The use of foreign languages is bewildering, but the most bizarre episode has the Banker offering to protect the Beaver from the menacing Butcher, who specializes in butchering beaver, by insuring the beaver against fire and hail. The Court Officer is unwilling to fulfill their lawful obligations. The Banker attempts to bribe the predatory beast with money and suddenly disappears.

It does not take a vibrant imagination to draw parallels to our own government and our relationship to our enemies. If we substitute Radical Islam for the beast and our nonsensical State Department for the lunacy of following a blank map, and our Attorney General for the Court Officer, the poem becomes a Nineteenth Century preview of the last four years. No, it is not a children’s tale, but it is the persona of the Bellman that is the most revealing, for he continues to ring his bell and leading those who still follow blindly and continue to believe in the fantasy.

Adults normally lose this rich imagination during adolescence and consider those who fall for orchestrated frauds to be naive pathetic individuals without the ability to function in modern society. but within the simplicity of this first impression is the stark reality of what may have been the greatest hoax in all of history.

In 2008, Americans were asked to make a faith based decision and vote for a blank sheet of paper; a one term Senator from Illinois, the most violent and corrupt state in the nation, who was being promoted as not only the most intelligent man to ever run for the presidency, but a man of the people who would work bring about “Hope and Change” and “Wealth Redistribution”.

Some of us said, “No, no, no, these are Marxist slogans of the 19th Century, but America’s imagination was enthralled by the blank map; after all, he was half-Black and definitely not from the establishment of either party. He was new, he was exciting, he was half-Black; “He was a gift from God” according to the moron from San Francisco. With such vaunted intellect and leadership abilities, it is logical, nay it is imperative to have a blank map. If more astute citizens fail to see the logic, it is because of inherent racism and minds that are unwilling to let go of the past and embrace a modern enlightened era.

After four years of continuous propaganda by the president’s own dedicated news services, and three and a half years of failure, greed, incompetence, arrogance, Narcissism, corruption and the piling on of ruinous debt, Americans are beginning to doubt the wisdom of falling for the “Blank Map” candidate, in the president’s desperate calls for reelection, he no longer dares to mention his superior intellect or his unparalleled leadership abilities, those lies are no longer palatable for a citizenry that has taken the largest share of the brunt trauma of his incompetency and corruption, for they have watched their estates and net worth dwindle down until they are mere shadows of their former value.

So who still marches while singing the praises of the “Blank Map” candidate?

It is those who are hopelessly delusional, and those who have nothing and hope to see a redistribution of wealth, and our dedicated Marxists, groups who have no interest in a healthy strong America; nay, their dream of America is to acquire wealth from others and to destroy America’s sovereignty, to bring America under the control of a group like the UN. With myopic predictability, they seek immediate short term gratification, with no thought of the long term inevitable destruction of the once greatest economy in the world. They contend, even though their program has failed in every application, this time they will get it right. Thus by employing the same creative energies of a child’s imagination, the Useful Idiots can still see the advantages of Obama’s Socialism through the haze of his lies.

For them, the “Blank Map” candidate was the only option, but now that we have increased our entitlement classes and the derelict and indigent classes can sense how close the dream of acquiring the wealth of others, they are like a pack of wolves closing in on a wounded animal.

They must rally their forces for the wounded animal is fighting back, and if the blank map Bellman is defeated and we have a capable and honest man in the White House, it is unlikely America will ever be in this economically compromised and vulnerable position in the future.

They must rally their forces around the Bellman’s ringing, lest too many see the madness and evil of relying on the blank map.