When the chips
Are down and order slips,
Who will stand, one with the other?
“You are my brother”,
(Tis so easy to say),
But when the chips
Are down and order slips,
Will I be your brother
Or something other
– A man who when order slips
And there are no chips
Says, through trembling lips,
“I am for
Whoever can restore
A semblance of law
Be he
Ever so cruel,
For when the chips
Are down and order slips,
Most men will grin
And save their own skin
For Hobbes’s rule
Applies when there are no chips
And order slips”.