"So goes the wittiest couplet in English. But it falls short by pairing two writers who are only superficially alike: Ryder Haggard and Rudyard Kipling. Only Kipling comes close to real greatness when he is at his best, even on a par with Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Tolstoy. We are not supposed to know this because Rudyard Kipling is (wrongly) damned by the Left for his supposed British imperialism and aggravated normalcy. The Left controls the organs of propaganda, and in Britain, the cultural Left has been in control for a whole century. To the Left, there are no artists, but only propagandists for and against them. Everything is politicized. But great writers outlast their political enemies. Who really cares today if Shakespeare supported the Tudors or not?"
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