My Weird Sixties Surreal Book – Chapter 52 – Pete Smith’s Death in a Breath poem

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Portendown is where they produce the viruses and bacteria that can cause a plague to wipe out the enemy. They test all kinds of biological and chemical weapons. The object is to kill more efficiently. The danger is that it kills everyone – friend and foe – in the process.

This poem was Pete’s – I incorporated it into the book. It fitted in here.

52.

Death in a breath.

 

(We’ve got ……………)

Red bloody death

And black spotty death

And they’ve served their purpose well-o

Fried to a turn

Crisped brown burn

And lovely green gassy hell-o

 

But what we need to kill with speed

And I’m sure you’ll all join me with this creed

 

—– is………………

(The new yellow……..)

 

SUPERKILLLER FRAGMENTARY GERMICIDAL AKSHUN

SUPERKILLER ORBALLISTIC ONE CAN KILL A NASHUN

 

IF YOU WANNAKILLA LOT WE’VE SOMETHING QUITE OBNOKSHUS

SUPERKILLERPORTENDOWNSOWNGALLOPINGBRAINROT POK_SHUS

 

OOOOOOOOOH   YEEEEAAAH!!!!!!!!!

 

(Written by Pete Smith)

My books are available on Amazon in paperback and digital formats. They are world-wide!

In the UK you might like to browse through on my link below: For overseas visitors please refer to your local Amazon. You’ll find me there.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1475747471&sr=1-2-ent

In the USA:

In the USA – https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=opher+goodwin

Here’s a few selected titles:

Rock Music

  1. The Blues Muse – the story of Rock music through the eyes of the man with no name who was there through it all.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blues-Muse-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1518621147/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475748276&sr=1-6

2. In Search of Captain Beefheart – The story of one man’s search for the best music from the fifties through to now.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Search-Captain-Beefheart-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B00TQ1E9ZG/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475748276&sr=1-5

Science Fiction

1. Ebola in the Garden of Eden – a tale of overpopulation, government intrigue and a disaster that almost wipes out mankind, warmed by the humanity of children.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ebola-Garden-Eden-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B0116VXVIY/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_19?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475749570&sr=1-19

2. Green – A story set in the future where pollution is destroying the planet and factions of the Green Party have different solutions – a girl is born with no nervous system.

Kindle & Paperback versions:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Green-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1500741221/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413306641&sr=1-10&keywords=opher+goodwin

The Environment

1. Anthropocene Apocalypse – a detailed memoir of the destruction taking place all over the globe with views on how to deal with it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anthropocene-Apocalypse-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1502427079/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413306641&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

Education

  1. A passion for Education – A Headteacher’s story – The inside story of how to teach our children properly.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/passion-Education-story-Headteacher/dp/1502445867/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413306641&sr=1-1&keywords=opher+goodwin

There are many more – why not give them a go! You’ll love them!

 

Pete Smith’s Cartoons of Genius – Measuring ourselves against other life

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When the religious view prevailed it used to be thought that we are not animals. We are made in God’s image. We were somehow apart.

Hopefully DNA evidence proves quite categorically that we are animals and have come out of the same evolutionary process that gave rise to our fellow creatures. We are no different and not the products of a divine production line (or lump of rib).

As animals perhaps we should have greater respect for our fellow creatures and start to look after them and the planet a lot better!

Pete, back in 1971, displayed this anthropomorphic tendency to value other living things by their similarity to us. That too is nonsense. Every plant and animal, including us, started from that same one single cell. We are all equally evolved but different (in complexity and adaptation). There is no hierarchy of importance. No animal or plant is better or worse than any other. We are all equally miraculous – against all the odds we formed on this jewel of a planet. That is almost a miracle!

Pete Smith’s Cartoons of Genius – Oph and Liz

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This was a quick pen picture from memory that Pete did of Liz and me. He hasn’t quite got the hair right. My hair was waist-length back then. But it looks OK and always makes me smile nearly fifty years on.

Pete Smith’s Cartoons of Genius – The Plastic Family

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The image of my proud parents holding me as a baby. Except the whole of society is a cut-out. Nothing is real. It’s a game, a role we play. We play the part and assume the role. It is not real. We are cardboard cut-outs.

Mummy and Daddy in the park with him 1950.

Pete Smith’s Cartoons of Genius – Even when it’s obvious it isn’t!

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On our course we had to analyse a lot of data and interpret it. It would have been nice if that data somehow illustrated the wonder of life. It was far from a celebration.

Pete Smith’s Cartoons of Genius – Reduction of nature through education.

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This was another sketch commenting on our education system. Instead of a celebration of life, nature and the universe, it was a study of dead specimens. They were reduced to anatomical parts that required naming. Instead of the understanding of how they worked revealing a greater, more wonderful revelation, it merely reduced it down to something less than what it was. The sum of the parts was less than the whole. It was a chore to be learnt rather than a joy to be appreciated.

Biology should be a celebration – not a misery. It’s a wonder!

This was a simple drawing of what had been a much more intricate pencil drawing. I shall have to hunt those drawings out!

Pete Smith’s Cartoons of Genius – Floundering in society without culture.

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This was a very quick sketch . The original was a pencil drawing that was much more developed. It was a comment on our society. It represented people lost in the meaninglessness of the society, floundering around in search of meaning and purpose and drowning in the pointlessness. Desperate mental tendrils were being fired out like grappling hooks – looking for purchase, for something to cling on to, for some substance worthy of living for.

I can’t help thinking that things have progressed and become even worse since 1971 when Pete drew this. We are now heavily into celebrity culture and the shallowness is all too clear. Where is the purpose, meaning and substance?

We are being distracted with mindless entertainment and converted into consumer units to be bled dry. Too many mindless sheep for me. The cartoon takes on even more relevance.

Pete Smith’s Cartoons of Genius – Science and the beauty of the world

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There’s a beautiful world out there. Science should help us learn how it works and make it even better.

All too often science is used for profit and serves only to create a dustbin out of beauty.

Scientists should be life-affirming, enhancing and promoting wonder. That is what science is about.

There’s a beautiful world out there. We have to look after it – not turn it into a rubbish dump.

Pete Smith’s Cartoons of Genius – Rebirth into a better world.

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Back in the sixties we really believed that we were part of a generation who had woken up to the horrors that our society was creating with its warmongering, hatred, environmental destruction, xenophobia, racism and pollution. We believed we could find a new way forward where money wasn’t the main thing; where we could live more freely and happily in a simpler fashion in harmony with nature.

It proved a short-lived dream. The establishment machine rolled over us and sucked us in. It made profit out of every aspect we stood for and sucked it dry. The ideals were sold back to us as fashion. The machine rolls on crushing all before it.

Back in 1971 Pete was envisioning that new birth into a bright new future away from the drudgery and pollution of the past.

It was a brave new world out there and love was the answer. We were setting off to explore.

Pete Smith’s Cartoons of Genius – The world we are creating in the rush for profit and growth.

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The capitalist system runs on profit and depends on growth. There are always shortcuts. Legislation is circumvented. All that matters is the bottom line.

In the process nature takes second place. The environment is trashed for quick bucks and the planet suffers.

We are all part of that unique biosphere. Our numbers are out of control. Our activities are changing the climate. Our pollution levels, habitat destruction and expansion are killing wild-life at an alarming rate. We are trashing the planet. In the course of that we will end up wiping ourselves out. We are part of that biosphere and cannot live outside it. What fools we are.

If we wish to prevent Pete’s vision of the future (from 1971) becoming a reality we have to use our intelligence and take measures to put things right. I suggest:

  1. Limiting our numbers
  2. Giving 50% of the planet to humans and 50% to undisturbed wilderness
  3. That we stop deforestation immediately
  4. That we stop the killing of wildlife
  5. That we bring in alternative non-polluting energy sources
  6. That we stop polluting the environment

All of that is possible. We just need to have the correct priorities.