https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ4Fw4rqD48
Sounds really patriotic… if it were a real country.
No: this is pure Leninism.
And it is not about being “scholarly.” Scholarliness, and intellectualism do not equate.
1 Like
I’d rather everyone post lyrics and break down their meaning rather than post YouTube videos.
My apologies! As penance, I’ll go over all the ones I’ve linked to above.
The Soviet Armenia anthem (which exists in Russian as well as Armenian versions) is predictably Communist, with a line about how Lenin brought eternal fire, and an “unbreakable people’s holy alliance” with Russia. Oh, and the country is “work-loving”? There has been some debate recently within Armenia on whether to bring back the Khatchaturian music, if not the lyrics, but the move is viewed suspiciously by those who see it as toadying to Russia (whose anthem also repurposes a USSR melody), and who are attached to the current anthem as the anthem of the first Armenian Republic, the “republic of a thousand days.” (It served as a protest song during the late Soviet era.) There has also been some noise about adding a cross to the flag.
The Tuva anthem was only adopted in 2011, apparently on the basis that they just didn’t like the old one, and found it hard to sing. Here is a link to that and to a translation of the lyrics:
Recall that according to old ROC maps, Tuva is actually part of the Republic of China!
The Ottoman Empire had several “official” marches, of which this is probably the best. No lyrics, of course.
The (Nizari) Ismailis are a Muslim sect which follows the Aga Khan as their Hazar Imam, the Imam of the Age. Merely to glimpse him (“deedar”) is to have one’s sins forgiven. The present (fourth) Aga Khan lives in France, and is one of the richest men in the world. If he looks a bit pasty compared to his followers, it is because he is the result of several generations of interbreeding with Western models. The British recognized his predecessors as quasi-royalty (this was while they lived in India), hence the need for a flag and anthem (which was originally just called a “salute”). Some information and a transcription / translation:
http://www.ismaili.net/timeline/2007/20070720kavi.html
The Sikkimese national anthem has lyrics either in Nepali or Sikkimese (Denjongke, = 'bras ljongs kas, close to Tibetan), and was either composed and adopted in 1970, at a time when the Chogyal (king) was struggling to avoid annexation by India (which occurred five years later), or several centuries before that. Perhaps it was a traditional song that had many variants which were only harmonized and written down in 1970:
http://www.nationalanthems.us/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1356886977
St. Helena is a British territory, and its people (of which there are only a few thousand) tend to be very pro-British. Ironically, this has put them in conflict with Britain, which had a different view of their nationality. (Saints lost their UK right of abode in 1981, and regained it in 2002.)
The lyrics of the Malian anthem are not very noteworthy, I’m afraid.
The TV series Amerika was set in a Soviet-occupied USA, which was divided into Soviet-style republics including “Heartland” (Kansas-Nebraska, etc.). I have never forgotten how long and boring their anthem was (defects from which the miniseries also suffered). Ironically, Communist anthems tend to be pretty good. PS. The occasion is “Lincoln-Lenin Day,” Lincoln having been reimagined by the occupation as a sort of proto-Communist.
1 Like
In all honesty, most anthems have pretty dull lyrics.
I like this verse of Lupang Hinirang because I recognize more words from it than other verses.
Lupa ng araw ng luwalhati’t pagsinta,
Buhay ay langit sa piling mo,
Aming ligaya na pag may mang-aapi,
Ang mamatay ng dahil sa iyo.
It translates to
Land of the sun, of glory, and love,
Life is heaven in your embrace;
It is our joy if there will be oppressors
To die because of you.
araw means day or sun, and is exactly the same in the Tao language.
langit means the sky or heaven. It is spelt as langitr in Puyuma, langica in Saaroa, even in New Zealand’s Maori language, it is rangi. They are all derived from the Proto-Austronesian word *laŋiC.
mamatay seems like a form of the word matay, which means to die in Basai and Sirayan. In many other Formosan languages, it became some form of mapatay. In Maori it became mate. They are all derived from the PAN word m-aCay.
1 Like
Oh, and here is a rather awesome anthem-related “moment of Zen” when Canadian hockey fans help out with the US national anthem after some mic trouble:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHSaHRd4Q48
See? Even their sports hooligans are polite!
2 Likes
So nice of the Canadian fans to remember the lyrics to the US anthem, especially when President Trump couldn’t be bothered to to the same.
I think the US flag is a bit silly, but in terms of anthems, Star-spangled Banner is amazingly written. The section of the poem lifted to serve as the lyrics invokes patriotism without describing the duty of the people, or the American ideals, which is a cliche most anthems around the world falls for, and make anthems feels forced and disingenuous.
Instead, Star-spangled Banner just paints the scene of Americans defending Fort M’Henry despite immense odds and heavy bombardment. The imagery and symbolism of the flag surviving an all night bombing is way more powerful than just singing “we will die for our land” flat out as so many other anthems do.
It’s a difficult song to sing, but it might have the best lyrics of all anthems.
I did some studying up on Sun’s economic philosophy.
The “livelihood of the people” is based on Georgism, which is about taxing land instead of income. It’s consistent with classical ideas of Adam Smith and David Ricardo and is concerned with efficiency. Well within mainstream economics.
So is Sun a lefty? Perhaps. Marxist? No.
Sun wrote his version of the Three People’s Principles around 1906. The Bolsheviks’ October Revolution didn’t happen until 1917.
I think you can say Sun was a lefty but not a Marxist when he first came up with the Three People’s Principles. Although he really only came into contact with communism until 1922, when his fell out with his warlord buddy in Guangdong and found himself without an army.
By then the Soviets had won WWI, and was willing to fund and back Sun’s KMT as the main branch of the communist party in China. Since the Soviets chose the KMT as the representative of Communist International in China, the entire CCP joined the KMT in 1922. As a result Sun was really impressed by the Soviets and Marxist philosophy.
So much so that in 1924’s first National Assembly, Sun mentioned in his speech that the Minsheng part of his Three People’s Principles, a.k.a. the People’s livelihood, is the same as socialism, and also can be called communism, which is the realization of Confucian’s the Great Unity.
民生主義就是社會主義，又名共產主義，即是大同主義。
So don’t tell me he wasn’t Marxist by 1924. It’s hard to tell whether or not he was a true believer of Marxism, or if he did and said stuff just so that the Soviets would keep their aids coming, but at least he remained pro-Soviet until he died.
1 Like
“People’s livelihood” is based on Georgism, which holds that what’s produced (goods and services) should flow freely and capitalistically while land should be more communal.
So why are property taxes in Taiwan so low?
Do you have the full text of his speech?
I’m reading Sanmingzhuyi right now, through with 37 pages.
He admires Russia and Lenin and appears to be a Marxist in the sense of favoring the weak over the powerful. I don’t detect anything about a government takeover of the means of production.
His economic philosophy is very mercantilist, understandable since during that time, all the means of production (banks, shipping, textiles, etc.) in China were dominated by foreigners.
1 Like
1 Like
OK, this really casts doubt on the notion that Sun is a Marxist. He uses people’s livelihood instead of socialism because, as he puts it, there are too many types of socialism that the definition is meaningless. He believes socialism, communism, and people’s livelihood are different names for answering the same question. But let’s dig deeper into the essay.
The reasons he isn’t a Marxist is because he refutes Marx on two major counts. Furthermore, Marx had already been dead 70 years, and a lot of his predictions had already been disproved, as Sun pointed out.
- Sun refuted Marx on class struggle, which Marx believed created social progress. In contrast, Sun believed that progress was created between negotiations between the capitalist and the laborer. Among the things Marx believed capitalists would never concede is the eight-hour workweek, which was not only instituted, but enshrined into law in Germany.
- Sun did not buy Marx’s theory of surplus value. Marx believed that the laborer created most of the value in a product. Sun believed all of society contributed, including the consumer.
- A host of Marx’s predictions were falsified by the time Sun was writing this, including: 1) that capitalists would fight amongst themselves, and then break down after a social revolution. 2) Capitalists would never agree to lower wages, shorter hours, and lower prices. Ford Motor company disproved all three.
我今天就拿這個名詞來下一個定義，可說民生就是人民的生活
、社會的生存、國民的生計、羣眾的生命便是。我現在就是用民生二字，來講外國近百十年來所發生的一個最大問題，
這個問題就是社會問題。故民生主義就是社會主義，又名共產主義，即是大同主義。欲明白這個主義，斷非幾句定義的
話，可以講得清楚的，必須把民生主義的演講從頭聽到尾，才可以澈底明白了解的。
The English translation sounds much different:
Since subsistence is an element in livelihood, the theory of the American scholar is in entire accord with the Kuomintang Doctrine of Livelihood. For over twenty years we have preached the Doctrine of Livelihood instead of socialism because the term livelihood is more exact and suitable to define the nature of the Social Question than these terms, socialism or communism.
But in any case, when we look at the essay in totality, it’s hard to imagine Sun’s being a Marxist when he doesn’t buy into the Marxist pillars of class struggle and theory of surplus value.
I’m not a Marxist, and hence not an expert on Marxism, but there are Marxists, even today, who believe Marx’s predictions haven’t been disproved (they’d be fulfilled under the right conditions). And here is Sun, writing seventy years after his death, asserting they’ve been debunked.
1 Like
I remember that!
Original words of America the Beautiful
O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife,
When once or twice, for man’s avail,
Men lavished precious life!
References the Revolution and the Union victory in the Civil War
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain,
The banner of the free!
The writer, Katherine Lee Bates was also a social activist interested in the struggles of women, workers, people of color, tenement residents, immigrants, and poor people
(she was also probably a lesbian)
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!
Proclaiming the great day when Gilded Age capitalism was wiped out and socialism (or close to it) was established.
She was also a Republican who supported the party’s original anti-slavery platform, but quit the party over its opposition to internationalism and the League of Nations.
If she was alive today, she’d be tearing down statues.