When I think back to the days of the late sixties when we were looking for the antidote to the plastic universe, I really thought that we were making progress. We were looking for things that were real, authentic and meaningful rather than the empty, plastic, drivel of the hypocritical society with its empty lust for power and money. Hypocritical religion, corrupt politics, plastic people.
Progress.
The sixties, for a brief moment, bought into a new dream – equality, spirituality, nature, realness and a more meaningful life.
The bubble burst.
We’re back to plastic Barbies with pouty lips, false eye lashes, painted on eyebrows and plastic hair. We’re in the world of botox and plastic. Plastic plastic plastic and more plastic.
We’re back with hypocritical religion – pray on Sunday, screw everyone the rest of the week – be racist, exploitative and greedy. Forget what Jesus said – screw immigrants, make money, who cares?
We’re back with even more corrupt lying politicians – Trump ($5 billion so far), Farage (a £1,000,000 a year), Johnson £5 million) and right-wing viciousness and lies. Racism is back in vogue. Immigrants are to blame not billionaires.
Frank Zappa and Roy Harper had stuff to say about Plastic people, plastic culture, plastic hypocrisy and plastic phoniness!!
And asked me if she really was
A woman like the rest because
The rest she saw as empty vessels
Looking ripe and dressed to kill
But really very far away from freedom
She sobbed and put her head down and walked into the night
Saying that she was wrong as any and that the rest were right
But they were proper women
Existing in a stupid mess
Of vegetable thoughtlessness
Made up as if to please the men
But making life a drag for them
Rejecting all communication – giggling
Roy Harper – All You Need Is (Remastered) – YouTube
We need another 60s!!
The Wisdom of Mankind
Bombing hospitals
Bombing schools
Blowing little children
To glutinous pools.
That’s what research
Is aiming for
All Man’s ingenuity –
The wiles of war.
Opher – 18.4.2025
Isn’t it incredibly sad that we use science, technology and all our creativity in this way?
All over the world, in secret labs, our cleverest people are paid to devise ever nastier ways of killing other people.
All those dollars spent on death.
At this minute politicians are plotting who to attack, Generals are identifying targets. Schools, hospitals, residential blocks, clinics and electricity stations are targeted. Children and women are fair game.
Destroy resolve; destroy spirits.
It’s evil.
Just imagine if all that money could be used to deal with poverty, inequality and the creation of a less polluted world.
Just imagine if we used our greatest minds to find solutions to all our problems.
What a world we would live in.
Instead….
I took this photo back in 2010. To me it is an important symbol – a statement of philosophy.
Statements and philosophies are extremely important. They are symbols of intent and dictate what happens next.
They guide minds down pathways.
It was given to the American people by France (maybe partly as a snub to Britain) as a symbol of freedom. It depicts a Roman Goddess breaking free of chains. It is symbolic of the USA’s breaking away from Britain and also the emancipation of slavery.
It is situated on Liberty Island and is a powerful symbol of liberty and freedom.
It is adorned with a powerful poem written by Emma Lazarus:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
The line that is best remembered is the one starting with ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’
It was a statement of intent. Here was a welcoming land of freedom and space who would welcome all manner of poor immigrants and afford them the opportunity to make a new prosperous life.
How times change.
I’m not sure that the Native Americans, as the endemic population, quite shared that sentiment.
These days liberty has come to mean something different – something involving guns, selfishness and intolerance.
I’m not so sure that I like that ‘new American’ version of freedom. It seems to value the liberty of one person above that of others and the environment.
To me liberty is finding space to be yourself with harming others or the planet. Within a crowded environment and threatened ecosystem there is a compromise. I value tolerance.
If you want true liberty you need to live on your own.
So there is much to discuss about the symbols and philosophy tied up within that statue – and whether that poem still has relevance today.
Is America a symbol of freedom and justice? I think many would view it as the opposite – an unwelcoming place, full of indoctrination, fanaticism, superstition and division – a nation that seeks to dominate, control, subjugate and interfere.
Symbols are important.
