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Comment by CamperBob2 | Hacker News Reader

   Come 2014 when the government marks the beginning of the 
   first world war with quotes from Rupert Brooke, Rudyard 
   Kipling and other great jingoists from our past empire, I 
   will declare myself a conscientious objector.

What's "jingoistic" about Rudyard Kipling? How is this guy's perspective any different from the sentiments expressed in 'Tommy' (http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/tommy.html)?

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It's that Kipling, according to many people, even in that times, effectively did imperialistic propaganda, even if he was aware that the reality didn't match the myth, didn't match in a sense which the article author wants to point out also concerning the WW I.

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/kipling/rkimperialism.ht...

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5478/

Thanks for the "Tommy" poem, it also shows something important.

It's worth pointing out that Kiplin lost his only son, Jack, to the Great War.

A couple other relevant poems:

http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_recess.htm

http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_epitaphs.htm

Interesting, thanks. I don't understand how this:

   Take up the White Man’s burden—
   Send forth the best ye breed—
   Go send your sons to exile
   To serve your captives' need

... could have been written in an unironic light. Yet many people, some of them powerful and influential, seem to have taken it at face value.

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