Pamela's Blog 39

Published on Monday, August 3, 2009 by Nas2EndWork.org

“Round And Round And Round We Go But Not Merrily”

(This blog will be discussed in part in the Waking Up Radio show of June 30, 2013…. The transcript of this show is posted on: To Rebuild Our Freedom: Taking A Look At the Galbraith Book… and What It Means To Defer To 'The Economy' … :

...until we decide to "Unplug" and embrace: "The Responsibility Of The Intellectual."

by Pamela Satterwhite

Picture this:

A small group of men, destitute, forced to tramp place to place, always on the move, never anywhere to lay down roots, always burdened with the oppressive awareness that the state watches.

One speaks:

“…I think the worst is the starving. Sometimes I’ve cried with weakness. I just have to sit down when I am and I just stare. I’m not so fitted for it as some. If it wasn’t for Mr. Johnson I would have…What is more my boots don’t fit. They pain me these boots – they have always pained me. It has been a year and they have never worn in.”
…The cripple said darkly: “There’s fifty thousand of us in England alone.” He spat. “And most of us fought for King and Country.”
“…Round and round and round we go but not merrily.”
…“They used to let us break stones in the spikey,” said Mr. Brander nostalgically.”
“It wasn’t good for your hands, Gerald,” said Mr. Johnson.
“We put the quarry men out of work,” said the cripple. “That’s what stopped it. Oh we’re a dead loss.”
Mr. Johnson said: “It’s the constant moving that’s so bad.”
Mr. Slattery asked: “Father Rockingham why can’t we just grow our own food? Why can’t we just do that now?”…
“Because those who could manage it, could organize it, could start it, don’t care to,” said the old man. “They’re not bothered,” said the old man.
“Ah,” they all said. And nodded their heads. “Ah yes. That’s it.”
…“If we’re parasites we’re paying for it. Here we all are in our buck’s cast-offs. And we’re paying.” His gaze brooded on his gaping brown boots. “Other feet once nested there warm. We’re paying for it in varicose veins alone…”
“Anyway what is meant by that word?”
“What word?”
“Work.” Mr. Slattery said: “It’s a word I’d like to hear defined. I know this! I know this! I earn my pitiable living.” *

Substitute places, cultures, sustenance and times and you have the dilemma of low-income black youth in America…

…and the dilemma of plugged-in youth in America…and the dilemma of urban dwellers of America…and the dilemma of the over-weight suburbanites of America…and the dilemma of…

…all of us.

Round and round and round we go but not merrily.

We have become wanderers on our own earth…

…we wander not just along the roads, most of us, but around the Internet.

And we’re paying…

…for want of a plan and the willingness to do the hard work to make it happen…

…we’re paying…

…because those who could manage it, could organize it, could start it, don’t care to…

…they’re not bothered…

…Ah yes. That’s it.

* The great actor, writer, human being…Robert Shaw.

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Pamela's Blog 39

Published on Monday, August 3, 2009 by Nas2EndWork.org

“Round And Round And Round We Go But Not Merrily”