We’re an amazing species….
Highs and lows
Amazing and seemingly unique at either extreme
If you’ve not read George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’, or ’1984′, do.
They are both amazing insights into humanity.
People are in general fairly easy to lead and manipulate on a social scale,
there’s the baton and the pizza
We’ve tended to go for the pizza approach in the USA.
Keep yer nose clean, work enough…
and you’ll probably always be able to have beer and pizza
while watching Monday Night Football.
It’s when either approach goes too far that problems occur.
When the government starts to give the pizza out….
you can expect that batons will be seen before too long.
Better to stay to the middle road.
From the film ’1984′
by John Hurt and Richard Burton
’1984′
‘Two minutes hate’
This is our land
a land of peace and of plenty
a land of harmony and of hope
this is our land
Oceania
these are our people,
the workers,
the strivers,
the builders,
these are our people,
the builders of our world,
struggling,
fighting,
bleeding,
dying
on the streets of our cities,
and on the far-flung battlefields
fighting against the mutilation of our hopes and dreams
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‘Us and Them’
~Pink Floyd~
Us, and them
And after all, we’re only ordinary men.
Me, and you.
God only knows its knows,
it’s not what we would choose to do.
“Forward” he cried from the rear
And the front rank died.
The general sat and the lines on the map
Moved from side to side.
Black and blue
And who knows which is which and who is who.
Up and down.
But in the end its only round and round.
“Haven’t you heard it’s a battle of words”
The poster bearer cried.
“Listen son”, said the man with the gun
“There’s room for you inside.”
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Chapter 58
When a government is unobtrusive and tolerant
the people will be happy and prosperous;
when a government is suspicious and strict
the people are dissatisfied and crafty.
Good fortune is linked to calamity;
misery is tied to happiness.
So who can tell when the end of this will come?
Is there no measuring-stick for the norm?
What is seen now as right and true;
will certainly someday be seen as wrong and false.
The people have labored under this sea of vexations for a long time.
Therefore the Master is square
without sharp cutting corners.
His straightness is not strained;
he is pointed without being piercing.
And he is bright but not blinding.