WHAT TO THINK. Second, shorter version
poor georgie’s almanack
Of course, the obvious is so obvious it sometimes is invisible. The following is happening today in other forms. But first some context.
My wife’s father’s family came to the USA in the late 1800s from a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that had freed the serfs just a few years earlier.
In Europe they were serfs … and serfs were not allowed to learn reading and writing.
Her grandfather, became a Pennsylvania coal miner who learned English and eventually was an insurance salesman.
But, that is not the guts of this story.
The Robber Barons of Wall Street around 1900 wanted to hire smart, strong, illiterate, and desperate men to work in their mines, railroads, steel mills and many other businesses … so they could teach them what to think. How to work. How to act. They called the shots.
Some immigrants were slick, like her grandfather “Elek.” Many just followed what they were told. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Today, in my dreams I hear the Buffalo Springfield rock band from 1966 singing “Somethings Happening Here.” Much of the lyrics follow …
There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down.
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