Bo Jo said, apparently, “Let the bodies pile high,” when initially refusing to lockdown the economy, again, in response to the second Covid spike.
All hell has broken loose. He’s been criticised, chastised and condemned: branded as cruel, callous and criminal.
But not by me.
Boris is, amongst other things, a flamboyant extrovert (what a tautology) with a multilingual vocabulary and turn of phrase to match. He uses locutions others don’t even know exist or wouldn’t dream of putting together – which reflects badly on their intellect and not Boris’s morals.
First question – Did Boris actually say those words? His usual detractors (of which there are many such robots) believe these reports unquestionably. Anything negative about Boris must be true, right? Such an attitude once again reflects badly on them, not Boris.
But to be honest, given his eccentricity and track-record of rhetoric, he probably did say it.
Second question – Should he have said those words? Shocking as they are, yes. Anyone should be able to say what they want in a private space, in a trusted gathering, where walking on eggshells and minding one’s Ps and Qs would be to the detriment of sound decision-making, where sometimes the most ridiculous things need to be said and dismissed as ridiculous early in the process, or accidentally fall from motoring mouths in the heat of the moment. Blimey, I’d have been arrested 100 times over should my mates make public some of the things I say to them in private, to a) let off steam, b) act as Devil’s Advocate, c) deliberately wind them up for a laugh because I’ve got a weird sense of humour.
Third question – Did the context of that infamous phrase justify its utterance? We know the exchange was about more Covid deaths vs lockdown or, as Boris was probably thinking, more Covid deaths vs more non-Covid deaths (e.g. cancer, heart attack, stroke, domestic violence, suicide, poverty). Helluva choice to have to make, so in a moment of exasperation and despair, while fighting his corner against the Un-Sage scientists, Hopeless Hancock and Uncivil Servants, he spews out something that he wouldn’t say in front of any of his mothers-in-law, then heck let him get it off his chest!
Fourth question – The fact that he came up with such a phrase shows he’s a bad person, right? Well. Ahem. Actually. It was the American poet Carl Sandburg (1878 – 1967) who wrote in his 1918-poem Grass:
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.Shovel them under and let me work –I am the grass; I cover all.
According to Emma Baldwin*, the first line of the poem refers to battlefields from the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. In both Austerlitz (Austria) and Waterloo (now Belgium) thousands of men died. The grass, which grows unceasingly, is willing itself up and over the bodies that still rest there. They are “Shovel[ed]” under and lost. This is a metaphor for the way that humanity moves on from the horrors of the past as soon as they are out of sight. By taking this position, the grass/Sandburg is actually advocating for the opposite. He doesn’t want humankind to forget what happened in its bloodiest battles. Rather, he’d like everyone to learn from the past in order to keep it from repeating.
Once again, Boris’s wide-reading and intellect is lost on his too-ready ignorant detractors.
I’m actually pleased he blurted it out and it was leaked – despite the despicable breach of confidence by whichever ‘toad’ it was (with apologies to the magnificent toads I occasionally see in my garden) – because it rang a very old bell in the furthest recesses of my mind from when I lived in America and first immersed myself in the delights of Robert Frost, e. e. cummings and, of course, Carl Sandburg.
All power to you, Boris. Let the literary quotes pile high.
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