Twain

Hey Folks,

I’ve been re-reading Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court and sharing pieces of Twain’s political commentary with you here (this is the 24th entry) .

His insights remain pertinent to this day. We haven’t changed much from Twain’s day – or from King Arthur’s, for that matter.


Chapter 40 - “Three Years Later” - Having vanquished night-errantry, the Yankee steps out of hiding.

“I no longer felt obliged to work in secret. So, the very next day I exposed my hidden schools, my mines, and my vast system of clandestine factories and work-shops to an astonished world.”

He knew the knights would realize he’d been bluffing in the lists; so he repeated the challenge:

“I said, name the day, and I would take fifty assistants and stand up against the massed chivalry of the whole earth and destroy it.

I was not bluffing, this time. I meant what I said; I could do what I promised. . . this was a plain case of ‘put up or shut up.’ They were wise, and did the latter. In all the next three years they gave me no trouble worth mentioning.”

- Uke Man