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blackbootz  ·  2823 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks [1891, oil on canvas]

Definitely relevant. The poster, the reply to Mehmed IV by the Cossacks, and the painting itself all appeal to a headstrong, haughty, testosterone-laden side of me. Probably the side of me that older, wiser men have always warned younger men to be careful in heeding. The side of young men who tremble when they read Shakespeare's St. Crispin's Day Speech:

    This story shall the good man teach his son;

    And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

    From this day to the ending of the world,

    But we in it shall be remembered-

    We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

    Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

    This day shall gentle his condition;

    And gentlemen in England now a-bed

    Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,

    And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.