"MAN WAS HARDLY UP AND WALKING BEFORE MONEY STARTED TALKING" (Song - "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler" - By Tom Paxton)
The guys who penned the following great song got there approx 60 years before Paxton. When will we rumble these crooks ? My advice is to keep your money under the bed.
"They used to tell me I was building a dream And so I followed the mob.
When there was earth to plow or guns to bear, I was always there, right on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream With peace and glory ahead --Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?
Once I built a railroad, I made it run, Made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad, now it's done --Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick and rivet and lime.
Once I built a tower, now it's done --Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits, gee, we looked swell Full of that Yankee Doodle-de-dum.
Half a million boots went slogging through hell, And I was the kid with the drum.
Say, don't you remember they called me Al, It was Al all the time.
Why don't you remember, I'm your pal --Say, buddy, can you spare a dime?"
(E. Y. HARBURG/JAY GORNEY) (1932) America.
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11 comments:
Shame Shostakovich doesn't have any lyrics I can quote as an example of how rubbish communism in the 1930s turned out to be.
Though this could apply to people in the USSR:
"They used to tell me I was building a dream With peace and glory ahead --Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?"
Shame it misses out the bullet in the back of the head from the NKVD...
Capitalism goes wrong, communism goes wrong. Clap clap.
(Nick) 16:56
You have clearly never heard of Joe McCarthy have you, if you had you would know that Shostakovich was just fine.
You might want to consider that Capitalism won and look at us.
Durr, who he? Of course I've heard of him, you plum. The anti-communist witch hunts in America were dreadful and ruined the lives of many innocent people.
Though they weren't, I'm sure you'll agree, as bad as the Yehzovschina. You've heard of Yehzov, right?
Were they as bad as the forced famine in the Ukraine? Or, to shift socialist utopias, the Great Leap Forward? The Killing Fields?
Shostakovich was lucky: he managed to sneak his subversive art under the Soviet radar. But what of the countless artists and dissidents who died in the Lubianka or enjoyed a trip to the gulag for disagreeing with the regime?
I don't think communism can work without coercion. Liberal capitalism can, though sadly many of its proponents don't seem to think so.
After a bit more thought (and partially to avoid a thrilling socialist/capitalist slanging match), I'd like to put this to you to see what you think: the common cause of failure in the enaction of any ideology is people.
Maybe it doesn't matter which political stripe the people in power are, it will always go badly wrong due to human weakness, inflicing lots of misery on most of the populace while insulating a select cadre at the top (whether Soviet nomenklatura or corporate fat-cats, to follow the ideological binary).
What do you reckon?
(Nick) 09:08
There are two main things you can do when you have made a complete a**e of yourself. 1/ Learn from it and 2/ dig yourself in deeper, you have just chosen the latter.
I see you've not published or responded to the other comment I left on here. Shame.
Could you explain how I've made an arse of myself and the lesson I should learn, please?
(Nick) 08:34
I think you know only too well what I’m getting at, I can smell the anger and embarrassment off the page. Pride before a fall Nick. Learn from it.
(Nick) 17/09/08
That is philosophy of despair and I don’t share it but, if you read the newspapers and consider that communism lost, well, Capitalism will have to buck up it’s ideas eh !
I was enjoying our exchange on here! Where'd my other comments go, Terry?
(Nick) 15:34
What other comments ?
Huh, I posted two other comments on here, I guess blogger ate them.
One was asking how I've made an arse of myself by comparing the capitalist and communist purges for the damage they did to their countries.
The other was saying that rather than despair, I'd use the phrase 'pragmatic cynicism' in relation to my previous comment.
I've forgotten any musicological comments!
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