December 11, 2006
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We Fought the Battle for Peace
…and where did it get us?
A few days ago, Greyfox told me he had this song running through his mind, but couldn’t recall all the words:
The Times They Are A-Changin’
by Bob DylanCome gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
Copyright © 1963;
renewed 1991 Special Rider MusicI told him I’d look up the lyrics online and print them out for him. He thanked me and expressed some wonderment that (a) he would have this old sixties song stuck in his head, and (b) he would have such a deep emotional reaction to it. I reminded him that his emotions have been very sensitive lately, a consequence, I think, of his work to transcend his narcissistic personality disorder, as well as a result of his no longer dulling his emotions by self-medicating for that purpose.
I went on to say that his song was more pleasant than the ‘sixties tune I’d had stuck in my head for a while:
The eastern world it is explodin’,
Violence flarin’, bullets loadin’,
You’re old enough to kill but not for votin’,
You don’t believe in war, what’s that gun you’re totin’,
And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin’,
But you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction.Don’t you understand, what I’m trying to say?
Can’t you feel the fears that I’m feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there’s no running away,
There’ll be no one to save with the world in a grave,
Take a look around you, boy, it’s bound to scare you, boy,
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction.Yeah, my blood’s so mad, feels like coagulatin’,
I’m sittin’ here, just contemplatin’,
I can’t twist the truth, it knows no regulation,
Handful of Senators don’t pass legislation,
And marches alone can’t bring integration,
When human respect is disintegratin’,
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’,
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction.Think of all the hate there is in Red China!
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama!
Ah, you may leave here, for four days in space,
But when your return, it’s the same old place,
The poundin’ of the drums, the pride and disgrace,
You can bury your dead, but don’t leave a trace,
Hate your next-door-neighbour, but don’t forget to say grace,
And you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend,
you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction.
you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction.“Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire
After looking up and reading the Dylan lyrics, and listening to Greyfox on the phone singing the verse that he remembered, I had lost Eve of Destruction and gotten Greyfox’s song stuck in my brain. But, for some reason, as I was driving home tonight from our last (I hope) trip to the vet with Hilary (getting her sutures out), The Eve of Destruction was back.
I segued from that into some reflections on war, and on anti-war. Last week I heard someone on the radio reacting to having heard someone else state that the Iraq war has a lot in common with Viet Nam, except for the lack of an anti-war movement at home. The woman, an organizer of peace demonstrations, cited some numbers of those who had participated in some recent peace marches, and spoke of the volume of letters and email being sent to Congress and the shrub administration expressing a lack of support for this war.
Perhaps the person who had originally failed to take notice of the current anti-war movement in this country was thinking in terms of the anti-war demonstrations of the 1960s. It’s a quiet thing now, compared to the bottle-throwing mobs in the streets, the bombings of National Guard armories and ROTC facilities, and the public outcry that was personally directed against the troops.
The most benign expression that I recall from that bottom echelon protest was the slogan, “What if they gave a war and nobody came?” Troops returning from Southeast Asia were often met by booing crowds. They were spat upon. That was misguided, I think. Many of those troops were draftees; others were forced into military service for economic reasons. Many had been indoctrinated to view their participation as a patriotic act. Spitting on them didn’t help anything.
Likewise misguided, in my currently evolved opinion, was the violence we resorted to in our protests against Amerikan imperialism. To me, it doesn’t make sense to bomb a building in one’s hometown to protest the national government’s bombing of Hanoi. Fighting for peace makes about as much sense as fucking for celibacy. It’s not all that different from the current government’s resorting to torture and terror tactics to fight terrorism.
On the other hand, what effect does a quiet and peaceful protest movement have? If anyone in this country now can believe that there is no anti-Iraq-war protest movement, then that movement isn’t having much of an impact. Just as was done by a few people forty years ago, some people now are refusing to pay taxes to support the war. Their non-contribution is a drop in (or out of) a bucket, and the government will just borrow more money to keep the war going. Other Americans are leaving the country in protest. What impact do those expats have? It seems to me that withdrawing from the field and leaving the country to the warmongers is going about it backasswards.
Until I come up with a more effective tactic, I’ll just keep running my mouth, and my keyboarding fingers, and reminding everyone that it has all been said before.
Give Peace A Chance
John Lennon & Paul McCartneyTwo, one two three four
Ev’rybody’s talking about
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, that-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m.All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chanceC’mon
Ev’rybody’s talking about Ministers,
Sinisters, Banisters and canisters
Bishops and Fishops and Rabbis and Pop eyes,
And bye bye, bye byes.All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chanceLet me tell you now
Ev’rybody’s talking about
Revolution, evolution, masturbation,
flagellation, regulation, integrations,
meditations, United Nations,
Congratulations.All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chanceEv’rybody’s talking about
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary,
Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper,
Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer,
Alan Ginsberg, Hare Krishna,
Hare, Hare KrishnaAll we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chanceetc.
Comments (8)
I am always ever grateful that you are a part of my life. This post just solidifies that.
god damn it………… I left a comment here and it got lost with the rest of the shit………
I left this tune……….. and can’t even remember why……..
Am sure I meant well………….
Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, when youre older, must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town
And they tell him,
Take your time, it wont be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
Therell be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return, we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
Good music all ’round. Great post, too.
Hmm, I remember those songs. Someone once told me that as long as we’re on this planet, there will never be peace. I asked them if we should avoid it at all costs!
This was a great post. I really enjoyed reading it. I am too young to have been around for the vietnam protests, so this was a great way to read more about them. I know the music, though and love it. Thanks for this post.
Ther insights and thoughts that are birthed from the songs that we listen to.
I so loved the songs and the sentiments at that time… and have learned and grown so much since then.
If only………….
Dance with Memories!!
Thanks again for the lyrics. I have been singing to the cats. They seem to enjoy it. (wishful thinking, probably)