The DNA of Modern British Etiquette

If, by Rudyard Kipling.




If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;(fine)
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;(Make allowance?)
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,(all good stuff)
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:(Here we go-apologise to the assholes because you are not)

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;(Don't get too ambitious now)
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;(Remain essentially stupid)
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;(Imposters?)
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;(Man proposes, the mob disposes)

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,(Oh me?40 years hard work?No.Doesn't mean shit.)
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;(Never breathe a word-accept obscene injustice with equanimity)
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"(Okay!)

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,(How many patronising dickheads think they have the common touch?)
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!(Fine.)