An illuminating e-mail:
“Mr. Derbyshire—The Orwell quote may have been bogus, but there are many
similar quotes specifically regarding Kipling. C.S. Lewis: ‘It is a brutal
truth about the world that the whole everlasting business of keeping the
human race protected and clothed and fed could not go on for twenty-four
hours without the vast legion of hard-bitten, technically efficient,
not-over-sympathetic men, and without the harsh processes of discipline by
which this legion is made. It is a brutal truth that unless a great many
people practiced the Kipling ethos there would be neither security nor
leisure for any people to practice a finer ethos.’
“One of the best essays on this subject is Richard Grenier’s ‘The Uniforms
That Guard: Kipling, Orwell, and Australia’s Breaker Morant’. (The essay is
in Grenier’s ‘Capturing The Culture’ – one of the best modern works of film
and cultural criticism).
“Particularly relevant to the Iraqi situation is this section by Grenier:
“‘Kipling’s notorious identification with authority and the ruling power, so
distatsteful to later intellectuals, conferred upon him one tremendous
advantage, a “sense of responsibilty,” which was the secret of his strength
and influence. “The ruling power,” wrote Orwell, “is always faced with the
question ‘in such and such circumstances what would you do?’ – whereas the
opposition is not obliged to take any real decisions. Where it is a
permanent and pensioned opposition… the quality of its thought
deteriorates accordingly.”‘”