House of Eratosthenes

Whenever they do something nice for you, it becomes their job from that day forward. Show that you belong in the driver’s seat. You’ll feel really good about it later.

The day you figure out those three items are horse squeeze, you’re well on your way to growing up and getting something useful done.

Good stuff, Morgan.

How you put these two together is beyond me.
- tim | 04/14/2010 @ 08:02
It’s a song about an old man, or maybe not-so-old, who belatedly realized the universe is not all about just him. He failed to realize this when it mattered because nobody ever took the time to specifically point it out to him. And his ignorance in this one tiny facet of living life, led to his failure to live life. He wasted it.

The old classic has some real prophecy value; the “millennials,” whose parents were beaten over the head again and again to worry about issues related to Precious’ self esteeeeeeeem, have been dumped, conveyor-belt-and-funnel-style, into precisely this situation and they have precisely the same regrets waiting for them.

Call it “Lament of the Obama Voter.”
- mkfreeberg | 04/14/2010 @ 09:05
And every crazy day
brought something new to do

I used my magic age
as if it was a wand

And never saw the waste
and emptiness beyond

The game of love I played
with arrogance and pride

And every flame I lit
too quickly, quickly died

Not only can you recognize Obama voters but Barry himself in those lyrics.

(Why do I suddenly have an urge to watch reruns of HeeHaw?)
- tim | 04/14/2010 @ 09:58
I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out,
I never stopped to think what life was all about
and every conversation I can now recall
concerned itself with me and nothing else at all.

Reminds me of Extreme Makeover Home Edition. The Obama voter is shown his new room, and before you know it fully ten minutes of television footage — God only knows how many solid hours of “stage” time, as they are filming it — are devoted to “Okay, make sure the camera can see your face as you show your excitement.” The whole point to life is for you to be excited. The whole point to having other people around, is so they can bring you things that excite you…and see your excitement. The only thing that is asked of you is to show your excitement. The only thing we want to see accomplished today, by the time the sun dips in the horizon, is for you to be excited.

Yeah, you think of Hee Haw. I think of January 20, 2009. All those faces in the crowd eager to show how excited they are…every single one of them registering the thought “Oh it’s so good to be me. Look at all of this, it’s all about me! Hope! Change! Nothing will ever go wrong because there is all this energy that’s all about doing things for Me, Me, Me!”

Yesterday when they were young, the taste of light was sweet as it rained upon their tongues…
- mkfreeberg | 04/14/2010 @ 10:26
Damn, Morgan, you da’ man! A deep thinker you is. You nailed it, as always!

BTW, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you deserve to be on the radio, TV, sum’n, sum’n, somewhere. Hell, why hasn’t one of conservative blogs picked you up, you’re a lot better than most of what they’ve got.

As far as the Hee Haw, I was just being flippant regarding Roy. Wasn’t meant to be related to any of my other comments. I grew up with that show, very fond memories.

Wow, Freud would have a filed day with that…especially considering the song and topic.
- tim | 04/14/2010 @ 13:16
What’s important to see about that video, and recording, is that its popularity arose from the same universal shock of recognition when it was made – 40 years ago. It’s not about the perspective of an old man, however much all of us may have seen it that way at the time. Rather it’s about the thing that comes to all men at the hour of realization that their dreams will need to be scaled back, and that time runs in only one direction.

That shock of insight has traditionally been a stage of maturity; 10 years after this song was written the culture was pleased to characterize it as “Mid-Life Crisis,” but nothing had changed, and nothing was new in that discovery. Recognition of one’s own mortality is the single component that separates the human awareness from that of the lower species. Nobody gets out of here alive; further, it is literally impossible to not know that.

What is new is the astonishing phenomenon of generations whose entire existence is based on the premise that they’ll never grow old. The level of denial suggested by that worldview is almost impossible to digest, and the implications of such a thing arising among humanity are staggering. Never think, though, that they don’t know they’re doing it. The aggressive immaturity, scorn for reality , dismissiveness and rage we experience as the daily behavior of “Leftists” has its ground in an inexpressible fear of that thing they cannot dismiss, which is the unavoidable finitude of existence itself. The observable insecurity and defensiveness of “liberals” in the last years of their lives are the seed of the old, old observation “Scratch a Liberal and you’ll find a Fascist.” Decades of unexamined denial leave a person with no defense against the horrors of the darkness within.

They know. Adrift and isolated in the ongoing horror show that is their inner life, they’re left with no strategy but projection of their inadequacies onto the world outside themselves – which is precisely the strategy of a 2-year-old.

They know.
- rob | 04/14/2010 @ 16:21
Beautiful.
Brought tears to my eyes then, and still does.
- jwb7605 | 04/21/2010 @ 12:04
Liked it, linked it. Subtle and pithy. Reminds me of that supposed Chinese proverb about how if you save a man’s life, you are then forever obligated to him, or as the Barney Miller show had it,

Harris: “The Chinese have a saying: ‘Save a man’s life and he’ll never
forgive you.'”
Wojo: “That doesn’t make sense.”
Harris: “Hey, *I’m* not Chinese… (thoughtfully, to himself) They’re
*supposed* to be damn clever.”

I’m not going to spend the rest of the afternoon Googling around for the exact quote. But I’d bet a dollar you have seen it somewhere.
- Hector Owen | 04/21/2010 @ 16:18

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent

Items of Interest

Monthly Archives

What They Say

Links

Warning to Young PeopleWednesday, April 14th, 2010

Warning to Young People
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010