2. Ask any professor of physics when was the first time they sang the Internationale, and what will be their answer?

3. Do professors of ethics consider French copyright laws when singing the Internationale after late night dinner parties?

4. Do professors of physics attend late night dinner parties?

Not only does the English translation of the Internationale differ on the two sides of the Atlantic, here in the U.S., the words traditionally varied among different socialist factions—CP, SWP, etc. The one difference I can recall (though I can’t for the life of me remember which version went with which faction) was in the identification of the agent of liberation

I learned the Internationale here in the US. I knew there were multiple versions, but never heard they were associated with particular factions. Can you identify some supporting authority? I’m not disputing your claim, just interested.

Here’s how I learned it (Can you, or anyone, identify the faction I learned it from, and explain how you figured it out?):

Arise ye victims of starvation!
Arise ye wretched of the earth!
For justice thunders condemnation
A better world’s in birth.

No more tradition’s chains shall bind us.
Arise ye slaves no more in thrall!
The earth shall rise on new foundations,
We have been nought, we shall be all.

Now ‘tis the final conflict,
Let each stand in his place.
The International Party
Shall free the human race.
The International Party
Shall free the human race.

“True literature can exist only where it is created, not by diligent and trustworthy functionaries, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels, and skeptics.”

“There are books of the same chemical composition as dynamite. The only difference is that a piece of dynamite explodes once, whereas a book explodes a thousand times.”

The English version didn’t come until the mid-1940s? … sounds like the U.S. military in Iraq, awaiting the terrorists to publish the English version of what is going on there. And to the terrorist, how about writing some books! Then see if their composition is incentive, that is, in an incinerary way, as opposed to an incendiary way.

Bro. Bartleby

I’ll take ravens, vultures, cannibals and the best from the nineteenth century – and you can have your ‘formative contexts’ nonsense.

Well, an English version of Zamyatin didn’t come until the mid-1940s, and one doubts a Russian-language version was any more easy to get. Besides, Orwell took the themes of “We” and refined them into a much more well known (and more powerful) novel.

And “God Save the Queen” requires a rabid patriot to sing it at all without being overcome by apathy and distaste.

Worth noting, also, that “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Jerusalem” have this in common: each song’s first verse can be answered “Yes”. (Or “No”. Depending on taste, patriotism, sensayuma etc.)

Personally I still love the tune of the old Soviet (and now Russian again) anthem, which, apart from anything else, can also be sung with the words from “Stand By Me”.

(btw, The line that the Zwedish do not sing, according to Dan K, is “we who are burdened down with taxes” or something near enough)

actually, the statement “And people think Americans are weird for hanging flags everywhere. It’s what we have because we’re tone-deaf” has a lot of truth to it; I can’t remember who it was that noted that quite a lot of consequences for American society might have flowed from the fact that The Star Spangled Banner has a significantly wider range of notes than most national anthems and requires a trained singer to sing it properly.

The parody of The Red Flag that I remember is Spitting Image’s ‘We’ll keep the red rose covered in manure’, dating from when Labour replaced the flag with the rose in its logo.