For the sake of our collective survival, the English-speaking
world needs to annually trumpet common achievements, values, and
goals. Fortunately, the calendar contains an excellent date. Even
better, the holiday’s credo has already been composed — by the
greatest content provider ever in any language.
Tomorrow, October 25, was once known as the Feast Day of St.
Crispin. On this day in 1415, Henry V and his underdog British,
outmanned at least by a factor of four, defeated Charles VI of
France at the Battle of Agincourt. These days, even though Vatican
II has delisted the twin martyred brothers St. Crispin and St.
Crispian, neither the day nor the battle stands a chance of being
forgotten. William Shakespeare’s Henry V, presented about 200 years
after the event, contains a moving call to arms from Prince Hal on
the morning of the battle. Honored today mostly in sound bites (“we
few, we happy few, we band of brothers…”), and
despite its hopelessly passe concept of medieval nobility, that
speech at Agincourt remains our most cherished dramatic
interpretation of leadership, vision, and sacrifice.
Six centuries later, the progeny of that tiny band have spawned,
imposed, and maintained what we call “civilization” across the four
corners of the world. Though other cultures (German, French,
Chinese) have made contributions in science and technology, it is
the English-speaking people who have markedly integrated material
improvement with moral growth. To a savage world, they delivered
common law, representative government, private property,
abolitionism, not to mention air travel, the Internet, and the
Beatles.
Yet, anglophones are reluctant to overtly or officially
celebrate this success, primarily for two good reasons: God and
Guns. First of all, religion in the 21st century is considered an
un-cool way of coercing anybody to do anything. Furthermore,
“Christianity” or even “Judeo-Christian values” is considered too
exclusionary a terminology to either describe or motivate our side.
Similarly, people today are uncomfortable with any rhetoric that
smacks of empire. And nothing says “Pax Britannia” (or “Pax
Americana”) more than a snippy little cocktail party to which only
one language is invited.
Unfortunately, self-effacement (another English-speaking virtue)
is currently an unaffordable luxury. Because, in our time,
“civilization” — manifested predominantly but not exclusively by
the English-speaking countries — is facing an existential
extra-national threat. What was once merely a think tank
pronouncement has become a truism accepted by those on our side who
disagree about everything else: this war cannot be won by guns and
occupation alone. That is why we must parry this mortal, nihilistic
threat with a moral, spiritual, life-affirming but decidedly
extra-national counterforce.
Beginning tomorrow, we need to dust off and primp St. Crispin’s
Day — and turn it into the annual world celebration. We Americans
can take the lead — no other country does a better job of
secularizing previous feast days (see St. Valentine’s and St.
Swithen’s [Groundhog], and keep St. Nicholas on the intensive care
list). Decoupled from both “religion” and Empire, Crispin’s Day
invites participants, all on an equal footing, to celebrate and
appreciate the contributions of the English-speaking peoples.
Like any other special day, for Crispin’s Day to succeed it will
have to observe traditional activities associated with that day.
Being a creative, open-minded, and innovating people, the
Anglophones of the world will no doubt come up with many excellent
ways to mark the day. Still, on top of all this free-lance
commemoration, there needs to be a core event.
Please permit me to float a simple core world activity — and
here’s where “the speech” again comes in handy: Crispin’s Day would
begin October 25, at sunrise on the field in Agincourt. A designee
would read the speech — which would be webcast live around the
world. Then, about an hour later, in the adjacent time zone, the
speech would again be read at sunrise — and so on for the
remaining 22 hours. In addition to the live streaming
presentations, the day’s previous appearances would remain be
available for viewing. Naturally, the 24 presenters would in every
possible way reflect the rainbow coalition that is the
Anglosphere.
If the webcast were to take place in 2008, that would be an
excellent start. Then, as more people learned about the day and the
educational establishment caught on to one more way to deviate from
core curricula, maybe we’d start to see some traction. By 2015,
maybe the 600th anniversary of Agincourt could get a bit of
fireworks (French are invited, of course).
So, you may ask, how can a webcast stop terrorist bombs? First,
let’s acknowledge a technical irony — this is a terrorist war
fueled by webcasts. A war of minds requires ideas — and our
reluctance to play either the “religion” card or the “empire” card
ties one and half hands behind our back. Beyond that, to understand
the true potential of Crispins Day requires an understanding of why
Prince Hal’s speech still casts a spell on those who hear it.
Centuries pass, the historical setting becomes irrelevant to our
current concerns, and yet we cannot let go. The men at Agincourt
will always “be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.”
Shakespeare’s words resonate in our soul, unique yet similar to
a favorite psalm or hymn. But mere words do not live 600 years
merely because they rhyme well or they hit the iambic pentameter.
We need Crispin’s Day to rediscover what previous generations knew.
Put in modern terms, we need Crispin’s Day because, entrapped or
encoded inside Shakespeare’s words, is the DNA of victory.
* * * * *
If anyone is interested in being any part of Crispin’s Day 2008,
they can leave their name and time zone at Crispinsday.com.
If you’d like to read the speech tomorrow (or today), you can
find it here.
Judd Magilnick is Managing Partner of MarketPlace America,
specialists in world trade.
