Today, reflecting on the year behind us and anticipating the year in front, what better time to review the collective wisdom and entertainment brought to you by The Alligator Blog for the last months?
If, like me, you find yourself thinking, “Where the heck was that article about [fill in the blank]?” then worry yourself no more.
Below is the compendium of Program Subjects from 2023. You might consider printing a hardcopy and posting it to your refrigerator for quick reference.
Your student who might need to write a report could find online source citations in the American Titans series.
When I first started this blog, every Wednesday’s feature was called “Alligator Considerations.” Each one was on a different subject, but because of that early naming convention, it is virtually impossible to find one in particular. Going forward, it will be easier to locate the subject.
This came up over the weekend because, in the absence of a recent Alligator entry, I listened to an Andrew Klavan podcast with guest Michael Knowles. Listen to it here.
At the 6:05 mark, Knowles makes a very fast reference to the very obscure Hilaire Belloc, an English journalist of the early 20th century. I had to listen to it twice to catch the name.
Hilaire Belloc’s name appeared in The Alligator Blog episode on The Wipers Times, posted on September 13, 2023.
Belloc was what we would call a far-right journalist. The Wipers Times satirized him for his over-the-top WWI propaganda. Belloc staunchly defended British superiority.
For you gun nuts, part of Belloc’s argument for Allied victory in WWI was based on the early British adoption of the water-cooled Maxim machine gun, an American invention from 1884. Widely known as the Vicker’s machine gun, it was water-cooled, fired 450 rounds per minute, and weighed 137 lbs.
(In 1908, Germany developed their own version, known as the MG08 “Spandau”, nearly identical to the Maxim. It was this Spandau that caused such enormous carnage at the Somme in 1916.)
For a slight rabbit-trail interest, see the use of the Maxim in Tom Selleck’s High Road to China, 1983. (The gun Selleck holds in the poster below is the lighter weight Lewis machine gun, aircraft mounted, which is also prominently featured in the movie.)
Back to the subject… sort of: In The Wipers Times post, Belloc’s characterization of impending British victory was widely rejected by British troops stymied in WWI trench warfare. They satirized him in the following fairly hilarious rendition. (Please note, this is a direct quote, for real, from The Wipers Times. It is their creation, not mine.)
In satire, the cleverly re-named “Belary Helloc” writes:
In this article I wish to show plainly that under existing conditions, everything points to a speedy disintegration of the enemy. We will take first of all the effect of war on the male population of Germany.
Firstly, let us take as our figures, 12,000,000 as the total fighting population of Germany. Of these 8,000,000 are killed or being killed, hence we have 4,000,000 remaining. Of these 1,000,000 are non-combatants, being in the navy.
Of the 3,000,000 remaining, we can write off 2,500,000 as temperamentally unsuitable for fighting, owing to obesity and other ailments engendered by a gross mode of living.
This leaves us 500,000 as the full strength. Of these 497,250 are known to be suffering from incurable diseases. This leaves 2,750. Of these 2,150 are on the eastern front, and of the remaining 600, 584 are generals and staff.
Thus we find that there are 16 men on the western front. This number, I maintain, is not enough to give them even a fair chance of resisting four more big pushes, and hence the collapse of the western campaign.
And finally, on a much more serious note, here is something Belloc, a friend of G. K. Chesterton, actually wrote. Read this with today’s political climate in mind:
It is a consolation to remember that corruption pushed beyond a certain point provides its own remedy, and that this sort of thing cannot indefinitely continue;
but it is less consoling to remember another truth, to wit,
that the correction of political and social evil may come in the form of irremediable catastrophe,
and that the innocent, who are the greater number, would then suffer most.
It is still less consoling to remember the universal human experience that
when evil is redressed by the only partly conscious force of reaction, it is not succeeded by a corresponding good,
but by some other new and unexpected evil.
(emphasis added)
I don’t know if you know the expression TL;DR.
Like LOL for Laugh Out Loud, TL;DR has become shorthand among blog readers: Too Long; Didn’t Read.
In our century, the above quote from Belloc is definitely TL;DR.
However, what it means is this:
When evil is not fully stopped by principled opposition, the evil will simply reappear again, worse.
In 2024, let us NOT go in search of evil to oppose.
But when it appears, may we have the strength of character to call it out.
Happy New Year!
Curt
2023 Alligator Postings in Review