Lao Tzu: In war man sinks from his higher to his lower nature

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Lao Tzu

The Way of Life

Translated by Witter Bynner (Thanks to Ken Freeland)

One who would guide a leader of men in the uses of life
Will warn him against the use of arms for conquest.
Weapons often turn upon the wielder,
An army’s harvest is a waste of thorns,
Conscription of a multitude of men
Drains the next year dry.

Lao Tzu: In war man sinks from his higher to his lower nature

How Twisted Sister Outclassed Congress

Rock & roll was under attack during the mid-’80s. As the music got more theatrical and provocative and MTV gave it a national platform, America’s youth screamed for more. It was obvious that pop music was experiencing a revolution it hadn’t seen since Elvis swiveled his hips on The Ed Sullivan Show. Enter Dee Snider and his band, Twisted Sister.

How Twisted Sister Outclassed Congress

Related:

1985 PMRC/Senate Hearings: Then and Now

YouTube: Dee Snider’s PMRC Senate Hearing Speech (Full)

YouTube: 1985- John Denver – Congressional PMRC Hearing Full Testimony

YouTube: Frank Zappa at PMRC Senate Hearing on Rock Lyrics

All The World’s A Stage – Poem by William Shakespeare

All The World’s A Stage

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

William Shakespeare