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10 January 2002

“The pen is mightier than the sword.”

Not, we think, written by a military chap.

How mighty are the pens today in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Congo-Kinshasa, Somalia or China, to name but a few of the world’s trouble spots?

“The pen is mightier than the sword.”  Wishful thinking by pen-pushers?

It sounds good but rings false.

The truth, perhaps, is the reverse:

“The sword is mightier than the pen”.

However, since this may be taken as given by most intelligent folk, it has not, unlike its inverse, acquired the patina of a literary paradox.

We might not be happy that the military chap is right, but that is irrelevant.

The military chap might even go further:

“The sword is mightier than the pen and two swords are better than one.”

Who is to say that he is wrong?

Or, to put it a different way, paraphrasing a question Joe Stalin put to Churchill,  when the Georgian was asked to promote Catholicism in Russia: “How many panzer divisions has the Pope?”

Or then again down on the farm: “Fine words butter no parsnips.”

Bleedin’ obvious, innit?

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