It’s the title of a 1972 historical novel by Taylor Caldwell, and a 1976 TV mini series.
And it’s what I’d often hear my father-in-law saying about various people wielding too much power… some of whom were in government, some in various businesses and organizations, and some involved in other things.
He’d refer to them as ‘captains and the kings’… which is the title of the 1972 novel.
The book chronicles “the rise to wealth and power of an Irish immigrant, Joseph Francis Xavier Armagh, who emigrates as a penniless teenager to the United States,” according to Wikipedia. He “befriends a Lebanese immigrant, and both are taken under the tutelage of an American plutocrat.”
Among the many themes in the novel, one theme, in particular – having to do with “a cabal of the rich and powerful” – got me thinking about what my father-in-law would say, when he was troubled by something that didn’t seem quite fair, or quite right. He’d tell us: ‘It’s the captains and the kings.’
My father-in-law, and my father, witnessed some things that were unfair and unjust, and nonsensical, inefficient and wasteful.
Like when my father, a long time ago, was at a construction site, where work involving a government agency was underway, and he saw an earth-moving machine, with mechanical problems he knew could easily have been repaired, being pushed off the side of a hill… apparently, because someone, in authority, not wanting to bother having the machine repaired, had decided instead to bring in another machine to replace the slightly faulty one.
What a waste! … my father must have been thinking, while he was thinking some other things, I’m sure, about the person in charge who had decided to junk a costly machine.
Which brings me to an article in the British newspaper, the Daily Mail, and a Navy SEAL, who was in 400 combat missions. “Most soldiers from opposing sides would get along if they ‘sat down over a coffee in a Paris café,’” said the Navy SEAL in the article, as he was discussing Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
His narrative, among many in the media, seems to make sense, because, so often it seems, it’s just one person, a captain, so to speak… a king, who decides to go to war, even when that’s not at all what many thousands, or millions, of people would desire.
Just one person – Russia’s President Putin, this time — among some 146 million people in Russia, exerting his power over some 43 million people in Ukraine.
As I was about to wrap up writing this column, I ran across this, in The Guardian newspaper:
A Republican congressman attacked by Donald Trump at a rally in South Carolina on Saturday called the former president a ‘would-be tyrant’…
The GOP congressman had voted to impeach the ex-president over the deadly attack on the Capitol.
And then, I ran across this, in The Hill newspaper:
An elementary school assistant principal was fired last week for reading a children’s book to a second grade class…The book is about a child who wants a new butt after he finds out his ‘has a huge crack.’
The book is described, in the article, as a “quirky tale of a tail, which features hilarious rhymes and delightful illustrations.”
What’s more to say about captains and kings, a “would-be tyrant,” and an educator’s dismissal for reading a book to students?
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.