Interesting Reading

[charler2]

I just finished Hunter S. Thompson's book on the '72 election, and this piece was included toward the end. I think it's just as applicable then as it is now...

BE ANGRY AT THE SUN

That public men publish falsehoods
Is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Has been known for years.

Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you. Watch the wheel slope
and turn,
They are bound on the wheel, these people,
those warriors.
This republic, Europe, Asia.

Observe them gesticulating,
Observe them going down. The gang serves lies,
the passionate
Man plays his part; the cold passion for truth
Hunts in no pack.

You are not Catullus, you know,
To lampoon these crude sketches of Caesar. You
are far
From Dante's feet, but even further from his dirty
Political hatreds.

Let boys want pleasure, and men
Struggle for power, and women perhaps for fame,
And the servile to serve and a Leader for the dupes
to be duped.
Yours is not theirs.

--Robinson Jeffers

 

[geekWithA.45]

It is sometimes asked whether it is better to live in the ascent or descent of a society. I used to flippantly answer that living during the ascent was nobler, and living during the descent was more fun.

Then I realized that the era of one's life is an entirely arbitary thing, and one deals with the world as one finds it.