Edward Walawender (“Right vs. Wrong,” Nov. 9, Our Readers’ Views) wrote, “What establishes authority? Deference? Majority rule? Power? Combination of the three?”
The Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1791 wrote about this, in reaction to religious wars inspired by the conservative religious revolutionaries, the Jacobites:
“What is Right, and What is Wrong, by the law, by the law?
What is Right and what is Wrong by the law?
What is Right, and what is Wrong?
A short sword, and a long,
A weak arm and a strong, for to draw, for to draw
A weak arm and a strong, for to draw —
Then let your schemes alone, in the state, in the state,
Then let your schemes alone in the state.
So let your schemes alone,
Adore the rising sun,
And leave a man undone, to his fate, to his fate.
And leave a man undone, to his fate.”
Conservative extremists should heed these words.
