Land of the Free and Home of the Armed
Feb. 20th, 2018 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinWell, it was something to see Assassins (surpassing expectations; that's saying something) and then a few days later, news of the latest mass-murder in an American school. Those who know me in person have probably had their ear talked off about how insightful the musical is to the rot in the American dream, and how the phenomenon has shifted from targeting the president to targeting innocents, as the cultural status of the president falls and his security detail rises – but it's a manifestation of the same twist in the national subconscious. Nine years before Columbine, Sondheim nailed it, and anyone questioning where this all comes from need only listen to this show, as it's all laid out quite plainly. (And it's fun.)
It takes a lot of men to make a gun,
Hundreds ... many men to make a gun:
Men in the mines to dig the iron,
Men in the mills to forge the steel,
Men at machines to turn the barrel,
Mold the trigger, shape the wheel –
It takes a lot of men to make a gun ...
One gun ...
And all you have to do is
Move you little finger,
Move your little finger and –
You can change the world.
Why should you be blue
When you've you little finger?
Prove how just a little finger can
Change the world.
What a wonder is a gun!
What a versatile invention!
First of all, when you've a gun –
Everybody pays attention.
When you think what must be done,
Think of all that it can do:
Remove a scoundrel, unite a party,
Preserve the Union, promote the sales of my book!
Insure my future, my niche in history,
And then the world will see
That I am not a man to overlook!
Ha-ha!
And all you have to do is
Squeeze your little finger,
Ease your little finger back –
You can change the world.
Whatever else is true,
You trust your little finger.
Just a single little finger can
Change the world.
I got this really great gun –
shit, where is it?
No, it's really great – wait –
Shit, where is it?
Anyway, it's just a .38, but,
It's a gun!
You can make a statement – wrong –
With a gun!
Even if you fail,
It tells 'em who you are, where you stand.
This one was on sale! It –
– no not the shoe –
Well, actually the shoe was, too –
No, that's not it –
Shit, I had it –
Here, got it! – Yeah! There it is! And –
All you have to do is
Crook your little finger,
Hook your little finger 'round –
– shit, I shot it
– You can change the world.
Simply follow through,
And look, you little finger can
Slow them down
To a crawl,
Show them all,
Big and small ...
It took a little finger no time to
Change the world!
A gun kills many men before it's done,
Hundreds, long before you shoot the gun:
Men in the mines and in the steel mills,
Men at machines, who died for what?
Something to buy – a watch, a shoe, a gun,
A thing to make the bosses richer,
But a gun claims many men before it's done...
Just
One
More...
Then, yesterday morning, was a fascinating programme about human history, the Enlightenment, fascism, and neuroscience – Steven Pinker is the darling of public radio thinkpieces, but here I heard him directly challenged for the first time by someone who knows what he's talking about and thinks Pinker is a Pollyanna. Inevitably, the election of Trump is often the crux of the conversation, but neo-fascist movements in Europe also get a look-in. They then get onto the power of storytelling and the neuroscience of persuasion, and psyched me right up to keep working on my book, as The Power of Story is a lot of what's behind my willingness to pour so much of my life into it. I doubt that a proper retelling of the story will change the world, but if it can change a few people as it has changed me, it will be worth it. No guns required.
It takes a lot of men to make a gun,
Hundreds ... many men to make a gun:
Men in the mines to dig the iron,
Men in the mills to forge the steel,
Men at machines to turn the barrel,
Mold the trigger, shape the wheel –
It takes a lot of men to make a gun ...
One gun ...
And all you have to do is
Move you little finger,
Move your little finger and –
You can change the world.
Why should you be blue
When you've you little finger?
Prove how just a little finger can
Change the world.
What a wonder is a gun!
What a versatile invention!
First of all, when you've a gun –
Everybody pays attention.
When you think what must be done,
Think of all that it can do:
Remove a scoundrel, unite a party,
Preserve the Union, promote the sales of my book!
Insure my future, my niche in history,
And then the world will see
That I am not a man to overlook!
Ha-ha!
And all you have to do is
Squeeze your little finger,
Ease your little finger back –
You can change the world.
Whatever else is true,
You trust your little finger.
Just a single little finger can
Change the world.
I got this really great gun –
shit, where is it?
No, it's really great – wait –
Shit, where is it?
Anyway, it's just a .38, but,
It's a gun!
You can make a statement – wrong –
With a gun!
Even if you fail,
It tells 'em who you are, where you stand.
This one was on sale! It –
– no not the shoe –
Well, actually the shoe was, too –
No, that's not it –
Shit, I had it –
Here, got it! – Yeah! There it is! And –
All you have to do is
Crook your little finger,
Hook your little finger 'round –
– shit, I shot it
– You can change the world.
Simply follow through,
And look, you little finger can
Slow them down
To a crawl,
Show them all,
Big and small ...
It took a little finger no time to
Change the world!
A gun kills many men before it's done,
Hundreds, long before you shoot the gun:
Men in the mines and in the steel mills,
Men at machines, who died for what?
Something to buy – a watch, a shoe, a gun,
A thing to make the bosses richer,
But a gun claims many men before it's done...
Just
One
More...
Then, yesterday morning, was a fascinating programme about human history, the Enlightenment, fascism, and neuroscience – Steven Pinker is the darling of public radio thinkpieces, but here I heard him directly challenged for the first time by someone who knows what he's talking about and thinks Pinker is a Pollyanna. Inevitably, the election of Trump is often the crux of the conversation, but neo-fascist movements in Europe also get a look-in. They then get onto the power of storytelling and the neuroscience of persuasion, and psyched me right up to keep working on my book, as The Power of Story is a lot of what's behind my willingness to pour so much of my life into it. I doubt that a proper retelling of the story will change the world, but if it can change a few people as it has changed me, it will be worth it. No guns required.
