Nick D’s Reviews > The Verso Book of Dissent: From Spartacus to the Shoe-Thrower of Baghdad > Status Update

“Song for Certain Congressmen”
Principle—Freedom!—Fiddlesticks!
We know not where they’re found.
Rights of the masses—Progress!—Bah!
Words that tickle and sound;
But claiming to rule o’er “practical men”
Is very different ground.
Beyond all such we know a term
Charming to ears and eyes,
With it we’ll stab young Freedom,
And do it in disguise;
Speak soft, ye wily Dough-Faces—
That term is “compromise.” --- Whitman

I clearly need to brush up on the English Civil War and groups like the Levellers. They sound so interesting