Pink Floyd University: Dogs Of War

Crocker and Petraeus came to the Hill and barked at both Houses this week. It's high time that they, and their fellow pack of barking dogs in the mal-Administration, the House, the Senate and the Traditional Media should be muzzled.

Bush and his "War Council" are truly the "Dogs of War."

The use of the phrase "Dogs of War" is generally recognized to come from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, from a speech Antony gives:

[...]
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And Chimpy's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Cheney by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

(Sorry Shakespeare fans; I couldn't resist. Hey, it still scans properly. To atone, here is a vintage offering of the whole 2 minute soliloquy by Marlon Brando.)

Since all the Pink Floyd members were schooled in Britain, I am certain they all were and are aware of the origins of the phrase, and I think a look at some snips of the lyrics justifies this thought:

Hell opened up and put on sale
...
Hollow laughter in marble halls
...
Has unleashed the dogs of war

Hell opened up. On Sale. Marble halls. Dogs of War. From Caesar's time, through Shakespeare's and ours, it's remarkable how some things about human society just don't change. When you read the lyric set at the end, after what is to come, I believe you'll come to understand why I say "everything I need to know about politics, I learned from Pink Floyd." Pink Floyd is just damn prescient, yet rooted in what they know of history. It's remarkable.

----

There are these two-legged dogs of war that I call out at the beginning of this post, and there are also the four-legged variety. There is one lucky dog and one tragic dog in the two videos below. WARNING: Both videos are disturbing to watch.

ne

This is tragic for our own humanity. Look at how easily, like a video game, four humans are so dispassionately gunned down from high above and far away. And look how easily four humans dispassionately participate in gunning down that poor dog. Why?

This Illegal Occupation/War is eating our collective soul. Why? To win? Win exactly what?

And the barking war dogs Crocker and Petraeus think we're fooled by their testimony? Not a chance. Senator Joe Biden destroyed the arguments handily.

The very worst part of all this is that this mal-Admnistration is really didn't even "cry havoc." It was quickly done with whispers and in secret that they actually invoked the hell to come that would devour our sensible spirits and shock us into this insensate state of "...all pity choked with custom of fell deeds."

To end, here are the complete lyrics to "Dogs of War" and a particularly apt Youtube. Emphases in the lyrics are mine, and reflect what I think are characteristics of the "
Dogs of War Cabinet" players, and chiefly those of Bush/Cheney:

Dogs of war and men of hate
With no cause, we don't discriminate
Discovery is to be disowned
Our currency is flesh and bone
Hell opened up and put on sale
Gather 'round and haggle
For hard cash, we will lie and deceive
Even our masters don't know the web we weave

One world, it's a battleground
One world, and we will smash it down
One world ... One world

Invisible transfers, long distance calls,
Hollow laughter in marble halls
Steps have been taken, a silent uproar
Has unleashed the dogs of war
You can't stop what has begun
Signed, sealed, they deliver oblivion
We all have a dark side, to say the least
And dealing in death is the nature of the beast

One world, it's a battleground
One world, and we will smash it down
One world ... One world

The dogs of war won't negotiate
The dogs of war don't capitulate,
They will take and you will give,
And you must die so that they may live
You can knock at any door,
But wherever you go, you know they've been there before
Well winners can lose and things can get strained
But whatever you change, you know the dogs remain.

One world, it's a battleground
One world, and we will smash it down
One world ... One world

Like I said, time to muzzle those dogs.

TAGS: Pink Floyd University, Iraq Occupation, Lost Humanity

Pink Floyd University - Voter Caging

Where to begin? So much infamy, so little time. So much truth in Art, and so many approaches. It's probably most wise to begin by quoting the Masters:

Did you exchange a walk-on part in the War
for a Lead role in a cage?"

Kris Kobach, Chairman of the Kansas GOP hopes you did as I learned from billw at CrooksAndLiars.com. Kobach had the unbridled temerity to send an email bragging about the fact that

To date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!” […]

My worn out Outragemeter instantly popped into explodotron mode as I read through the article at C&L which I highly encourage you to do. Fortunately, there enough examples from the Pink Floyd cannon that capture some sentiments about Kobach nicely, among them:

House proud town mouse,
Ha ha, charade you are
[...]
You're nearly a treat,
But you're really a cry
[...]
You radiate cold shafts of broken glass

Yes, those lines are all from "Pigs." (And I didn't use the most profane one either.) This sort of behavior is beyond swinish. It's not only illegal, it's positively un-democratic and anti-American, literally ANTI-AMERICAN as this endeavor seeks to rob other Americans of their Constitutional rights, not to mention the only opportunity we have in this representative system of ours to have ANY voice whatsoever.

It seems as if the lyrics to "Wish You Were Here" are no longer rhetorical, politically. Read/watch the following, substituting "Principled Leaders" for "you."

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
Blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have you found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

If you find you have 15 minutes to watch about how exactly voter caging works, you can see Greg Palast explain it here.

There are 3 things you can do about this.

1- Make YOURSELF bulletproof. Make sure you are accurately registered with your Secretary of State so that YOU cannot be caged. You do not want to leave your polling place next year having cast a "provisional" ballot.

2- Make others aaware, and encourage them to become bulletproof themselves.

3- Contact your congresscritter and tell them that Kobach's behavior is un-American, illegal and demand an FEC inquiry into violations of this consent decree. See, the Republicans have been caught doing this before.

UPDATE: dday has been posting at Digby's blog, and has some more on this issue

TAGS: Pink Floyd University, Voter Caging, Activism, 2008 Elections

DOH!

I am an utter MORON and I wouldn't blame anyone for never reading one of my posts again. Here's the thing:

I am quizzing about, looking to create another Pink Floyd University post. Shouldn't be too hard, right?

Wrong.

Anyhoo, I decided to look through the top Pink Floyd videos viewed in youtube. And the one at the top of the list just frikking slayed me it was so damn obvious.



I've been pussyfooting around, frankly, when it comes to how strong and viable Pink Floyd's politics are. I am not speaking for them. I am just speaking for what the band's output makes ME realize and want to articulate. What is particularly resonant in my opinion right now:

Hello.
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home? (0:22 elapsed)

Come on, now.
I hear youre feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain,
Get you on your feet again.

Relax.
I need some information first. (0:43 elapsed)
Just the basic facts:
Can you show me where it hurts?

In my opinion, the first 22 seconds says most of it; ABDICATION OF RESPONSIBILITY by the adults (read Congress)

The next 21 seconds are the game plan. Extend your arm, and recieve. Only it happens not via a pinprick, but by the pixel, and the masses have been conquered by the minute.

So, GOODBYE 1st and 4th Amendments! We loved ya while we had ya, but we never really knew ya.

I never really got this so plain and simple at a gut level before. That people don't really know or care. They're not involved. They're comfortably numb. I always thought...nevermind.

Pffftt. You know I can't leave a post without hope.




TAGS: why hadn't I thought of this before?, Pink Floyd University, Stupid shit, wake me later

Fifty Thousand!

Yowza!

There's a lot going on here at Les Enragés.
Sometime today, someone will be the 50,000th visitor. Not bad since we were just short of 30,000 when we had our first anniversary on Aug. 1.

WE LOVE YOU! You only come here and read us, 'cause you want to. We don't run ads or ask for donations, so I guess we're all here purely because we want to be too.

And, while I do not speak for the entire Unruly Mob, I will say this: If you're visiting here, there are probably a few things you're OK with. You understand:

• "Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing [a people] to slavery." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774.
• "When patience has begotten false estimates of its motives, when wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality." --Thomas Jefferson to M. deStael, 1807

Jefferson could have played guitar for these guys:

(Just like Ziggy)

On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand
Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of others suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away
Its a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting its shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that we're all alone
In the dream of the proud
On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
And mesmerized as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night
[intermezzo]
No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It's not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away?

And we thank you for coming here. Indeed, it's a privilege that WE are READ by you.

Thank you!


TAGS: CELEBRATE!, 50k, Are you kidding me?, I love this place.

Just So We're Clear

"Fascism Anyone?", by Dr. Laurence Britt compared the regimes of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto, and Pinochet and identified 14 characteristics common to those fascist regimes.

So you don't have to look at the link, here's the couple snips I personally find most relevant today. (Don't get me wrong, they're all relevant. Let's just have a snip here though.)

2.) Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights: Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

8.) Religion and Government are Intertwined: Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

13.) Rampant Cronyism and Corruption: Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

Have I whetted your appetite for the rest of the points? Like I said they're all totally relevant. So watch:



All that being said, there's a cure and hope. They both live within us. Whatever cures you, helps cure this mess in the country. Whatever hope you have, it's the same hope the country has. Because really it's one and the same; your, my, the countries destinies depend completely on what we DO and right now.

Take the actions you can before the primaries. Vote your principle in the primaries. Do not be persuaded by arguments of practicality and pragmatism. Be persuaded only by your heart and your gut. Aside from that do what you love and as much as you can. Because that's what's going to cure this mess. Tons of self actualized people on the right damn track.

If you want to stay comfortably practical, only on the side of "Well that other thing?[fill in the blank, Impeachment, Kucinich, de-Funding the Illegal Occupation] Ain't gonna happen."

Then Welcome To The Machine.



**Extra points for Pink Floyd University Curriculum are accrued by your comments.

TAGS: Fascism, Pink Floyd University, Do Something

What Happened to the Postwar Dream?

"We have this wonderful capacity in America to Hitlerize people. We had Hitler, and since Hitler we've had about 20 of them. Khrushchev and Mao and of course Stalin, and for a little while Gadhafi was our Hitler. And now we have this guy Ahmadinejad. The reality is, he's not nearly as powerful inside the country as we like to think he is. The Revolutionary Guards have direct control over the missile program and if there is a weapons program, they would be the ones running it. Not Ahmadinejad."--Seymour Hersh in an interview published Friday with Der Spiegel.

The march to war in Iran continues unabated. Well, actually according to Sy Hersh, the original rationale behind the march to war in Iran was completely abated--to the point of being abandoned. Nevertheless, the administration has a new rationale because no one was going to buy the WMD bait and switch again.

So are we supposed to buy into the shifting rationales for war approach again?

Is this a game?

Hersh thinks the White House thinks so.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Where does this feeling of urgency that the US has with Iran come from?

Hersh: Pressure from the White House. That's just their game.

How does one play the game?

Well, since Les Enrages.Org houses the prestigious Pink Floyd University, let's consult with the cannon.

From "Have a Cigar":

And did we tell you the name of the game, boy/We call it riding the gravy train.

Today the conductor of the 'war-with-Iran' gravy train is John Bolton.

But why do we keep following leaders down this road? A similar question was posed by Professor Roger Waters directly to Margaret Thatcher on my favorite Pink Floyd album The Final Cut on the song "The Postwar Dream":

Should we shout/should we scream/what happened to the postwar dream?
oh maggie, maggie what have we done?

Here's some insights from Rolling Stone's review of The Final Cut:

The Final Cut began as a modest expansion upon the soundtrack of the film version of The Wall, with a few new songs added and its release scheduled for the latter half of 1982... Around the same time, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, irked by the unseemly antics of an Argentine despot, dispatched British troops halfway around the world to fight and die for the Falkland Islands... Out of the jumbled obsessions of the original Wall album, he fastened on one primal and unifying obsession: the death of his father in the battle of Anzio in 1944. Thus, on The Final Cut, a child's inability to accept the loss of the father he never knew has become the grown man's refusal to accept the death politics that decimate each succeeding generation and threaten ever more clearly with each passing year to ultimately extinguish us all.

The album is dedicated to the memory of the long-lost Eric Fletcher Waters, and in one of its most memorable moments, his now-middle-aged son bitterly envisions a "Fletcher Memorial Home for incurable tyrants and kings," one and all welcome, be they pompous butchers in comic-opera uniforms or smug statesmen in expensive suits. He presents a ghastly processional: "... please welcome Reagan and Haig/Mr. Begin and friend, Mrs. Thatcher and Paisley/Mr. Brezhnev and party.... And," he coos, "now adding color, a group of anonymous Latin American meat packing glitterati." With these "colonial wasters of life and limb" duly assembled, Waters inquires, with ominous delicacy: "Is everyone in?/Are you having a nice time?/Now the final solution can be applied."

Waters realizes that all the Neanderthals will never be blown away. What concerns him more is the inexplicable extent of fighting in the world when there seems so little left to defend. In "The Gunners Dream," a dying airman hopes to the end that his death will be in the service of "the postwar dream," for which the album stands as a requiem–the hope for a society that offers "a place to stay/enough to eat," where "no one ever disappears ... and maniacs don't blow holes in bandsmen by remote control." But Waters, looking around him more than thirty-five years after the war's end, can only ask: "Is it for this that daddy died?"

(more)

Genration after generation the Thatchers and Boltons of the world order more Eric Fletcher Waterses off to die. Sure World War II was about Nazis and the Iraq War (and Iran Provocation) is about oil and contracts and petro-dollars. This is a major regression. The postwar dream was that the world could find a way to avoid annihilation even when war is defensive and easily justified. Our leaders are about to piss on the postwar dream over a war that's easy to avoid and difficult to justify.

Hersh is right. It's just games to them.

And by the way something, Jenna Bush, that is why we can't leave your dad alone. Not until his kind leaves the likes of Roger Waters's dad alone.

VIDEO: Pink Floyd - Postwar Dream

TAGS: Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, Iran, Seymour Hersh

Pink Floyd University, Part V - Learning To Fly

There's a ton of bad news out there. But there's some great news. It doesn't play well, because it's not neccessarily easy, sexy, or otherwise well taken. The news is this:

You Can Fly. Yup. And so can your congresscritter. There's only one ingredient required; bravery! Look at what my beloved Thomas Jefferson wrote to a professor in Edinburgh in 1824.

"[The] mind [of suffering man] has been opening and advancing, a sentiment of his wrongs has been spreading, and it will end in the ultimate establishment of his rights. To effect this nothing is wanting but a general concurrence of will, and some fortunate accident will produce that." --Thomas Jefferson to Dugald Stewart (Professor in Edinburgh Scotland), 1824

TJ wrote this 48 years AFTER the Declaration of Independance. The irony here is that a mere 2 years before his death, this genius patriot still understood the value of this; that he was still Learning To Fly. Still, after the establishment of the Republic, his genius just KNEW we had to keep on keeping on, as we must still do today, as is so nakedly witnessed to us, day after day.

I find Jefferson's letter to Dugald Stewart devoid of depression. I find it full of hope and exhortation. As I find these lyrics of Pink Floyd:

A soul in tension, that's learning to fly
Condition grounded, but determined to try

Here's the whole set of lyrics;

Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction is holding me fast
How can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earthbound misfit, I

Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings, I thought I thought of everything
No navigator to find my way home
Unladen, empty and turned to stone

A soul in tension that's learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earthbound misfit, I

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night

There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, a state of bliss
Can't keep my mind from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earthbound misfit, I

Regardless of today's shitty conditions, I am DETERMINED TO FLY. Because I believe we can. Fascists be damned. Pink Floyd still informs me of all I need to know about politics I do believe. And it is this:

You don't fly without risk. Take a stand, a fly. Or just sit down and shut up.

Cross posted at The Unconventional Conventionist

View all Pink Floyd University posts.

TAGS: Jefferson, Pink Floyd, Thomas Jefferson, JEFFERSON!

Pink Floyd Political University, Part IV

Post-Graduate School
- Roger Water's Amused to Death -

Doctor Doctor what is wrong with me?
This supermarket life is getting long
What is the heart life of a colour TV?
What is the shelf life of a teenage queen?
[...]
We watched the tragedy unfold
We did as we were told
We bought and sold
It was the greatest show on earth
But then it was over
We ohhed and aahed
We drove our racing cars
We ate our last few jars of caviar
And somewhere out there in the stars
A keen-eyed look-out
Spied a flickering light
Our last hurrah

And when they found our shadows
Grouped around the TV sets
They ran down every lead
They repeated every test
They checked out all the data on their lists
And then the alien anthropologists
Admitted they were still perplexed
But on eliminating every other reason
For our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left
This species has amused itself to death
No tears to cry no feelings left
This species has amused itself to death
( Complete lyrics in comments )

Assignment: Which would you rather have - Peace, Freedom and Justice, or an XBox 360 and an iPhone? Essays to be handed in and on my desk no later than the end of the world.

- Prof. S.B. True, guest lecturer.

---

Bonus Video: Wishing Well, by Paul Rodgers (of FREE) with Queen.

" 'Cause I know what you're wishing for
- love and a peaceful world."

Update 09/25/2007: Cross Posted (meaning I stole it from SBT and put it up over at the Unconventional Conventionist site. You can't pass up a great guest professor...)
TAGS: Roger Waters, Amused to Death, Paul Rodgers, Wishing Well

Pink Floyd University - Part ANIMALS

This is a supplement post to SadButTrue's post below.

Pigs.

I'll get back to them but "Sheep" first.


(Note the time cues are if you double click and look at the Youtube to verify the words)

Here are the first words/parts of "Sheep"

Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air.
You better watch out,
There may be dogs about
I've looked over Jordan*, and I have seen
Things are not what they seem.

What do you get for pretending the danger's not real?
Meek and obedient you follow the leaders
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel.
What a surprise! A look of terminal shock in your eyes.
Now things are really what they seem.
No, this is no bad dream.

This takes the listener through 3:48

*"...Jordan? ...Things are not what they seem..."? AIPAC, the "Lord Voldemort" of PACs as I have heard it at other sites. And you already know "this is no bad dream." Next, the musical development is fantastic, but the words begin again at 6:28 - and echo the 23rd Psalm.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want
He makes me down to lie
Through pastures green He leadeth me the silent waters by.
With bright knives He releaseth my soul.
He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places.
He converteth me to lamb cutlets,For lo,
He hath great power, and great hunger.
When cometh the day we lowly ones,
Through quiet reflection, and great dedication
Master the art of karate,
Lo, we shall rise up,And then we'll make the bugger's eyes water.

This ain't the 23rd Psalm by any account. What I'm getting at is: did we NOT see fascism rising in power? I say We Did.
What we must do is call a pig, a pig.



Really, most of the lyrics apply. What I want to call your attention to are these words in the 3rd verse:

Hey you, Whitehouse Ha, ha, charade you are
You house proud town mouse Ha, ha, charade you are
You're trying to keep our feelings off the street!
You're nearly a real treat
All tight lips and cold feet...
...you're nearly a treat
But you're really a cry

Bottom line; are you a LAUGH or a CRY?

Dave Coles is neither a laugh or a cry. That brave man stood right there, in the lines between tyranny and violence to make the point. Liberty lives in his heart. So does truth. Let us act the same, and ensure that Liberty lives in our hearts. Grim as the mission might feel, peeling masks, challenging police, the joy in the result is where we will find our revel. Done so intelligently as Dave Coles, we shall NEVER find ourselves on the "Animals" plane.

Yet, should we find ourselves at that converged violence spot, remember what Coles did. Be the line, and hold for peace.

Bravo Dave Coles!

---

More Pink Floyd University posts: (part one), (part two)

TAGS: Activism, Pink Floyd, DANGER WILL ROBINSON!

Pink Floyd Political Science University – Part 2

“Did we tell you the name of the game, boy? We call it riding the gravy train.”

This particular Pink Floyd song, from 32 years ago (ouch – I remember buying the album) is a famous indictment of the recording industry. And when you stop to think about it, the recording industry is a lot like how our government is today. While the Patriot Act deprives us of privacy and other freedoms, how different is Sony and its root-kitting? Not much. Spying is spying, after all.

Where I want to draw particular emphasis is the riding of the gravy train. This is exactly what the politicians want. An Easy Ride. They consistently prove this by offering platitudes, and mealy mouthed nothingness in terms of positions on real issues. This is my acid test for the difference between a politician and a leader:

If there’s a plan about making a plan, it’s a politician you smell. If it’s a bold stake on a position, with only a nod to cost, be it moral or monetary, that’s a leader. I call this the FDR test. You might find that unsettling, and fine. Leaders are constantly unsettled and that’s the mental reference. Hang on here, Pink Floyd is coming back into this mix, but;

We must be fair, and you must recall; the Department Of Dirty Tricks is a moniker coined during World War II about the fine brained folks at Bletchley Park in Britain. The Polish stole the Enigma coding device the Nazis were using and handed it over to Bletchley folks. (We may thank Sir Collin Gubbins for this effort, and the mighty Polish underground, fighting a mad retreat in the face of the Blitzkrieg.) They then used Enigma information to their advantage, without a moral guidance, only a tactical or strategic effect. This lead to more than one bombing disaster on friendlies revealed only years later.

Was that right or wrong?

In that case I say it was right. There was such limited use of secrecy, and then the “sunshining” of it relatively immediately after the fact. These are not the purposes, methods or procedures of today’s misadministration. The only thing these folks are doing is UNDOING the Constitution and the system of checks and balances of power. So there’s your second acid test.

The “why” of it? Money. To quote the Floyd:

“Money, get back.
I'm all right Jack keep your hands off of my stack.
Money, it's a hit.
Don't give me that do goody good bullshit.
I'm in the high-fidelity first class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet.”

Do ya REALLY need a Lear Jet? And exactly HOW MANY MILLIONS must you have? After you get, oh, I dunno, 4 or 5, ISN'T THAT ENOUGH!

Evidently, Hell No.

So come in, and have a cigar. We got a deal and a bunch of money to make. Politics is GREAT!

Next in the series, Pink Floyd deals with the political war pigs directly from a bygone time, and also makes mention of the sheeple. But hey, at the end of the series I do totally lighten up. I ride a Bike and remember friends.

We become and are the America we deserve. Step up!

(part 1)

TAGS: Fools, Pink Floyd, Greed

Pink Floyd Political Science University - Part 1

It dawned on me the other day; if a modern pop song/message can survive 3 going on 4 decades, in some cases, it must have a certain human elemental truth about it beyond mere entertainment. There are not a lot of these 30, 40, 50 year old gems lying around in current consciousness. But there are still some Diamonds. Pink Floyd notably among them.

So I came to think of this as “Everything I’ve learned about modern politics I have learned from Pink Floyd.” This is part one of a series. There will be at least three of these entries, maybe more. As I continue to match up Pink Floyd songs with current issues, the potential list just keeps growing. While the entries vis-à-vis the song topics are not in Pink Floyd chronological order, the method by which the band looks at politics and justice is very well laid out, and that’s the order I’ll tackle the topics in.

Modern domestic politics after WWII begins with the Politics of Division; "Us and Them."

Lyrics:

(A) Us, and them
And after all we're only ordinary men.
Me, and you.
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do.

(B) Forward he cried from the rear
and the front rank died.
And the general sat and the lines on the map
moved from side to side.

(A) Black and blue
And who knows which is which and who is who.
Up and down.
But in the end it's only round and round.

(B) 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.

(A) Down and out
It can't be helped but there's a lot of it about.
With, without.
And who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about?

(B) Out of the way, it's a busy day
I've got things on my mind.
For the want of the price of tea and a slice
The old man died…

Take a good listen and a good look at the lyrics. Each A and B section goes together. The A sections are nominally the musings of an ordinary person, and they develop in the song. First - “Hey, we’re only ordinary, and look at the shit going on.” Second – “The message I get is incoherent.” Third – “Nonetheless, I can tell what’s going on. It’s really about have and have not.”

The B sections. Here is the voice of the “Power”, and this voice develops along and against the lines of the sane person. First – “Go and die when I tell you to.” Second – “Do what I say, or else.” Third is most interesting since it’s the end phrase for the whole piece, and becomes a blend of the Us and Them sentiment. It is both the Sane and the alleged “Power” – first is the fully throated message from having detoured the life and values of the sane person “Out of My Way!” yet the sane voice returns with the result; for the war of the haves and have-nots, it is the have-not who is paying with his life. This snip from the American Political Science Review in it's conclusion about the influence of political science theory offerings of theirs from 1906-2006 says it:

James Fearon and David Laitin (2003), for example, argued in the Review that the material factors that favor insurgency are better predictors of civil and ethnic conflict than measures of ethnic or religious diversity, an argument that has great relevance for U.S. military tactics and strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Power voice is always countering against the normal, ordinary person voice. This is both the observation and the recipe to create an Us and Them frame of reference for the Politician to get what he/she really wants. Money and Power.

More on that behavior when we Have a Cigar and talk about Money.

(part 2)