Wednesday Canada Lit

 

“As the generations pass they grow worse.

A time will come when they have grown so wicked that they will worship power;

might will be right

and reverence for the good will cease to be.

At last when no man is angry any more at wrong doing

or feels shame in the presence of the miserable,

Zeus will destroy them too.

And yet even then something might be done

if only the common people would rise up

and put down the rulers that oppress them”

 

-Greek myth on the iron age

 

Now one might ask what this could possibly have to do with Canadian literature…glad you asked…there was time when literature was used in the cause of socialist movements…for example, let assume,

some Russian novelists and a few Canadian poets,

Dorothy Livesay, Earle Birney, P.K. page, Miriam Waddington and Dudek

with Laytnor just coming on the scene

                    in the 40’s it was said

“new roots…new shoots were needed to  produce a rough, socially indigenous poetry”

Alan Crawley took up the cry

and provided a vehicle

Contemporary Verse

for well over a decade…

                                if you’re into canada lit. read

                                              “The Little Magazine in Canada 1925-80”

                                                           by Ken Norris

better than the bible 

Marx

perhaps hard work and innovation should be rewarded…

but surely, not as disproportionately as it is today

if we want to keep capitalism we need to tax the bastards…wtf

 

do you have anything else to say…?

                           why of course but first a quote or two

 

“Primitive people give things away, ……….

                    in hunter gathering society   gratitude is non existent”

                                             .R.  Service1966                                                                                

 

“When i look at history i am a pessimist

when i look at prehistory i am an optimist.”

                                                 J.C. Smuts  

 

both quotes from Erich Fromm’s book

                                      “The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness.”

 

IT WOULD APPEAR TO BE

COMMON SENSE

THAT WEALTH IS CREATED

WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF A CIVILIZED SOCIETY

AND NOT IN A VACUUM…

SOCIETY IS MORE IMPORTANT

THAN ANY ONE INDIVIDUAL,

 

          THE STRENGTH OF A NATION or the world 

IS MEASURED

                BY THE WEALTH OF IT’S CITIZENS

                                 NOT A FEW INDIVIDUALS.

apparently not

IN 1961 THE USA

TOP WAGE EARNERS AVERAGED $13,700,000

 

SMALL CHANGE I KNOW

FOR MOST OF MY READERS…

 

IN 2006 THE TOP WAGE EARNERS

AVERAGED A TIDY                                 $263,000,000

                    A LARGE INCREASE

 

                           SAY YOUR $10/HOUR JOB

                                        GOING TO A HUNDRED

OR YOUR LIBRARIAN SALARY GOING

FROM $40,000 A YEAR TO $400,000

 

AVERAGE WAGE ROSE

FROM $22,000 TO $30,000

 

OBVIOUSY THE GAINS HAVE TAKEN PLACE PRIMARILY IN THE UPPER ECHELONS OF THE FINANCIAL ELITE…

THE TOP 25 HEDFGE FUND MANAGERS SALARY WAS THE EQUIVILANT OF OVER  500,000 TEACHERS   

I think i just reached

the halfway mark

of my existence…

half time…

                           44 to go

maybe 45…

 

Irreverence

rumor has it

we’re celebrating

jc’s birthday again…

…

“the word “gift”

has overtones of charity

not of reciprocity”

                                 E.R. Service, 1966

                  

cheers! 

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/13dec_globaleruption/