To Anacreon in Heaven: O! Thus be it ever ...

We sing the National Anthem as a dirge. We plod through it, fearfully approaching highest notes. It was meant to be a celebration. The tune is a drinking song and everyone knew that when it was popularized.  The song was "To Anacreon in Heaven" and it honored the potential for romantic encounters. 

Official-Photo-Star-Spangled-Banner-Living-History_1.jpg

1

To Anacreon in Heav'n, where he sat in full Glee,

A few Sons of Harmony sent a Petition,

That he their Inspirer and Patron would be;

When this answer arriv'd from the Jolly Old Grecian

"Voice, Fiddle, and Flute,

"no longer be mute,

"I'll lend you my Name and inspire you to boot,

"And, besides I'll instruct you, like me, to intwine

"The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine."

2

The news through Olympus immediately flew;

When Old Thunder pretended to give himself Airs.

"If these Mortals are suffer'd their Scheme to persue,

"The Devil a Goddess will stay above Stairs.

"Hark! already they cry,

"In transports of Joy,

"Away to the Sons of Anacreon we'll fly,

"And there, with good Fellows, we'll learn to intwine

"The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine.

3

"The Yellow-Hair'd God and his nine fusty Maids,

"From Helicon's banks will incontinent flee,

"Idalia will boast but of tenantless Shades,

"And the bi-forked Hill a mere Desart will be

"My Thunder no fear on't,

"Shall soon do it's Errand,

"And dam'me! I'll swinge the Ringleaders, I warrant.

"I'll trim the young Dogs, for thus daring to twine

"The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine."

4

Apollo rose up, and said, "Pry'thee ne'er quarrel,

"Good King of the Gods, with my Vot'ries below:

"Your Thunder is useless" — then shewing his Laurel,

Cry'd "Sic evitabile fulmen, you know!

"Then over each head

"My Laurels I'll spread;

"So my Sons from your Crackers no Mischief shall dread,

"Whilst snug in their Club-Room, they jovially twine

"The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine."

5

Next Momus got up with his risible Phiz,

And swore with Apollo he'd chearfully join —

"The full Tide of Harmony still shall be his,

"But the Song, and the Catch, and the Laugh shall be mine.

"Then, Jove, be not jealous

"Of these honest fellows."

Cry'd Jove, "We relent, since the Truth you now tell us;

"And swear by Old Styx, that they long shall intwine

"The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine."

6

Ye Sons of Anacreon, then join Hand in Hand;

Preserve Unanimity, Friendship, and Love!

'Tis your's to support what's so happily plann'd;

You've the sanction of Gods, and the Fiat of Jove.

While thus we agree,

Our Toast let it be.

May our Club flourish happy, united, and free!

And long may the Sons of Anacreon intwine

The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine.

The signature is 6/4 in the key of C.
You can find "Anacreon in" 6/8 time.
Our banner song was formalized 3/4 time
but not a waltz about 1950. 

Acceptable performances of "Anacreon" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MVYl8iy2Ic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ileDXkSTse8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l-n64NWHS4

280,551 views Feb 26, 2013

"The Anacreontic Song" Soloist: Jacob Wright Conducted by Jerry Blackstone From recording Poets & Patriots: A Tuneful History of "The Star-Spangled Banner," see http://starspangledmusic.org/poets-pa... Chorus: Justin Berkowitz, George Case, Mark Clague, Nicholas Davis, Stephen Gusukuma, Phillip Harris, John Hummel, Tim Keeler, Jonathan King, Nicholas Nestorak, Brandon Pemberton, Glen Thomas, and Scott Walters

And here - "Parody" they say but I say, "Right on." (This is a waltz.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-eZvRVywrA

6/4 time and Key of B-flat

"Myrtle has long been associated with Venus and love magick. Aphrodite is often shown wearing a myrtle-leaf wreath in her hair, and during the Roman festival of Venus Verticordia (Venus the Heart-Turner) on April 1, women bathed in water scented with myrtle and wore myrtle wreaths (the picture below shows a gold myrtle wreath from the time of ancient Greece).  In Eastern Europe, the wreaths held over the heads of a couple being married were originally made of myrtle (now gold crowns are used instead), and in Wales, brides once gave a sprig of myrtle to each bridesmaid.  In the Appalachian Mountains, throwing this magick herb into a fire was believed to make the face of one's future mate appear in the smoke.  In England, folk believed that myrtle wouldn't grow if it was not planted by a woman."-- http://www.alchemy-works.com/herb_myrtle.html

The Star Spangled Banner is a story and we stop at the opening scene. 

Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:

'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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?

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved homes and the war's desolation.

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Some people claim that the song is about Black slaves
but it is not. The third verse contrasts we free people
from the hirelings (Hessian mercenaries)
and slaves (subjects of the Crown). 

Chris Stapleton Sings the National Anthem at Super Bowl LVII 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFKXJ091Ed4

(Blues is very American.)

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Libraries of the Founders 

The Science of Liberty 

A Small Coin of Ancient Teos

Rebels: A Well-Regulated Militia (review) 

Liberty's Kids 

From the Declaration of Independence

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, 

--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:


For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

 

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

The Science of Liberty

Liberty's Kids

Libraries of the Founders

The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

Rebels: A Well-Regulated Militia

The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

When has our republic not been in danger of invasion from without or subversion from within? 

"[A] populist strand ... has run through American history since Jonathan Edwards led the Great Awakending against the sophistication that was blossoming in the eighteenth century and Andrew Jackson spearheaded a popular revolt against John Quincy Adams. In fact, the division between populists and the establishment has been a more fundamental one in American politics than that between left and right, liberal and conservative. Both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, like many of their predecessors, rode to the White House in large part by tapping an anti-Establishment vein in the populace."  -- The Wise Men: Six Friends the World They Made  by Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1986; page 29.

Nothing in human history required the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights. They were not the only documents of their kind. Before it was the United Kingdom, Great Britain had the Bill of Rights of 1689 which constrained the monarchy and included the right of the people (all of the Protestant ones) to keep arms in their homes. We all know the Articles of Confederation. But even that rested on the Albany Plan of Union, which itself was only one of several compacts over the previous two generations among some colonies for mutual defense. And the villages and townships were governed by elections, even—and especially—as the colonies lost their charters to the crown. 

The American revolution did not begin in July of 1776. The Marine Corps was founded on November 10, 1775. The battle at Breed's Hill and Bunker Hill had been fought on June 17, 1775, six weeks after Lexington and Concord. The Boston Massacre was March 5, 1770. The "American revolution" had already begun fifteen years earlier. The battlegrounds were the minds of Americans and the shots fired were ideas in newspapers, pamphlets, sermons, and private letters. 

Today, here in Austin, Texas, no parade will be held. We will have civic barbeques. Maybe that is enough, if it is true that 30% of the Texans in attendance will be carrying concealed handguns. I am less confident that 30% of them will have the post-graduate reading level necessary to understand the Declaration of Independence. (See here.)

Previously on Necessary Facts

Libraries of the Founders 

The Science of Liberty 

Rebels: A Well-Regulated Militia 

Liberty’s Kids 

The American Political Tradition and Profiles in Courage

Why Democracy is Difficult

If you run the Declaration of Independence through a grammar and style checker, you will find that it takes a modern college education to understand.  I would argue that most of today’s graduates do not understand it, but perhaps that is only from the lack of trying.

The founders of our republic were not average.  They were successful merchants and farmers and craftsmen.  George Washington was a surveyor.  (Quick: what is the square root of three?  A surveyor has memorized that as securely as most literate Americans have memorized the letter after R.)  If you drink beer you know the Sam Adams brand. It seems common enough, until you extrapolate from zymurgy to genetic engineering.

Jonathan Trumbull's
Signing of the Declaration of Independence
from the Library of Congress website

Karl Popper’s ringing plea, The Open Society and Its Enemies, was an appeal to ignorance. We do not know everything. Indeed, we cannot. New discoveries reveal that what we know today might not be true tomorrow.  Against that the fascists and communists of Popper’s time and the jihadi of our own offer intransigent commitment to claims of absolute certainty. Thus, the collapse of Arab Spring led to the rise of ISIS.

But an alternative exists.  Reality, reason, egoism, capitalism, and romanticism comprise the parameters of philosophical objectivism.  Ayn Rand’s capital-O Objectivism is just one expression of that. The broader philosophical objectivism, i.e., rational-empiricism, is the foundation of political freedom and social tolerance. 

But it is not easy, and nothing in the stars says that it must be. When Ptolemy I Soter complained to Euclid that geometry was difficult, the latter said that there is no royal road. In other words, there is no way to make this easier. Thinking is hard work.  It is easy to condemn the physically lazy, but no special sin exists for the intellectually slothful—except, of course, sloth itself.  Among the Texas State Guard, my email sigline is “Sapientia ardua est.”

Widespread intelligence and education are the basis for political freedom.  Of axiomatic necessity, most people are average.  Therefore, it might be argued that it takes a committed engagement by an intellectual elite to bring about a better form of government. However, the Flynn Effect posits that we are all smarter now than our ancestors of 100 or 200 years ago.  Maybe we just are not applying our intelligence to the right problems.

 

Created for an article that I wrote:
"Did Thomas Jefferson Wear
Mirrorshades?"
(Loompanics, 1991)

On my Macintosh, I have Word 2008, and its Spelling and Grammar checker seems to have a ceiling of 12^th grade. Nothing scores more difficult.  So, I ran the Declaration of Independence through several readability engines available on a website created by one Brian Scott. (“ReadabilityFormulas.com is a non-commercial ‘passion project’ created by freelance writer Brian Scott. The website offers free information and tools to understand readability formulas.  Visit Brian's other websites, LousyWriter.com and FreelanceWriting.com.”)

  

FIRST TWO PARAGRAPHS

Readability Consensus 

Grade Level: 19

Reading Level: difficult to read.

Reader's Age: College graduate

LONG TRAIN OF ABUSES

Readability Consensus

Grade Level: 23

Reading Level: very difficult to read.

Reader's Age: College graduate

LAST THREE PARAGRAPHS

Readability Consensus

Grade Level: 16

Reading Level: difficult to read.

Reader's Age: College graduate

Modernizing the presentation does lower the readability to grade 7.8.  Now it resembles Peter Norvig’s PowerPoint presentation of the Gettysburg Address (here).

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

• All men are created equal.
• They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.
• Among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
• To secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men.
• Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.
• Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.
•  The people may institute new Government.
• The foundation of the new Government rests on such principles as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
• The Government should organize its powers in such form.

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS

The Science of Liberty

Liberty’s Kids

Contradictions in the Constitution

The Rational Optimist and the Grand Complication