Which One Has a Grip on History?
Howard Zinn:
Gerard Van der Leun didn't even have to read it to come up with the retort:
Do not trouble yourselves with the world as it is, they sing. Do not listen to those who swear to kill and enslave you and take from you all that is yours, they insist. They too are subject to reason. Come let us reason together. Why must there always be fighting and killing? Why can't there be peace in our valley? Vote for us and come with us into the world as it can surely soon be. Follow the Progressive Pied Piper in the Camelot costume.
A more honest estimate of ourselves as a nation would prepare us all for the next barrage of lies that will accompany the next proposal to inflict our power on some other part of the world. It might also inspire us to create a different history for ourselves, by taking our country away from the liars and killers who govern it, and by rejecting nationalist arrogance, so that we can join the rest of the human race in the common cause of peace and justice.
Gerard Van der Leun didn't even have to read it to come up with the retort:
Surely then, they promise, when we have perfected our imperfect selves and rooted out all greed and all hate within us, will the world turn and once again love us. Surely we have had enough of war, capitalism and globalism. Surely now we can return to the grand unfinished project of our youth:Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius!
Aquarius!
Do not trouble yourselves with the world as it is, they sing. Do not listen to those who swear to kill and enslave you and take from you all that is yours, they insist. They too are subject to reason. Come let us reason together. Why must there always be fighting and killing? Why can't there be peace in our valley? Vote for us and come with us into the world as it can surely soon be. Follow the Progressive Pied Piper in the Camelot costume.
