WE HAD KENNEDY AND KRUSCHEV,
GHANDI AND GORBACHEV,
MOTHER THERESA AND POOR JOHN LENNON
SINGING ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE.
HARD RAIN’S GONNA FALL WARNED BOB,
AND ALL THOSE WORDS FROM THE LORDS ABOVE
HAD MAO TSE TUNG AND DOCTOR JUNG
AND TIMOTHY LEARY HAVING LOTSA FUN.
BUT NOBODY NOTICES YOU AND ME,
TOO DEAF TO HEAR TOO BLIND TO SEE
BUT WE STILL
LEARN NOTHING, KNOW NOTHING, CHANGE NOTHING.
WE HAD KRISHNA HARE AND THE MAHARAJI
STEPHEN HAWKIN , THE MATA HARI
DOCTOR MARTIN , AND JESSE JACKSON
BADER MEINHOF, RED ARMY FACTION,
HAD MR MANDELA GETTING OUT OF HIS CELLAR,
THE DALAI LHAMA WITH ALL THAT KARMA,
WE HAD CND AND HIV.
WE HAD VIETNAM AND LOVE AND PEACE
BUT NOBODY NOTICES YOU AND ME,
TOO DEAF TO HEAR TOO BLIND TO SEE
BUT WE STILL
LEARN NOTHING, KNOW NOTHING, CHANGE NOTHING.
WE HAD BLAIR PEACH AND THE QUEEN’S SPEECH
AND SO MANY YEARS OF WAR AND GRIEF.
WE HAD THE BERLIN WALL AND THE FIVE DAY WAR
NOBODY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE FIGHTING FOR.
WE HAD CHARLIE MANSON AND HOSTAGE RANSOM,
THE MARTYRS, THE MINERS, ALL TRIED TO DEFINE US,
WE SPLIT THE ATOM AND WE WENT TO THE MOON,
HAD RECESSIONS, DEPRESSIONS AND CRASHES AND BOOMS
BUT NOBODY NOTICES YOU AND ME,
TOO DEAF TO HEAR TOO BLIND TO SEE
BUT WE STILL
LEARN NOTHING, KNOW NOTHING, CHANGE NOTHING.
GHANDI AND GORBACHEV,
MOTHER THERESA AND POOR JOHN LENNON
SINGING ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE.
HARD RAIN’S GONNA FALL WARNED BOB,
AND ALL THOSE WORDS FROM THE LORDS ABOVE
HAD MAO TSE TUNG AND DOCTOR JUNG
AND TIMOTHY LEARY HAVING LOTSA FUN.
BUT NOBODY NOTICES YOU AND ME,
TOO DEAF TO HEAR TOO BLIND TO SEE
BUT WE STILL
LEARN NOTHING, KNOW NOTHING, CHANGE NOTHING.
WE HAD KRISHNA HARE AND THE MAHARAJI
STEPHEN HAWKIN , THE MATA HARI
DOCTOR MARTIN , AND JESSE JACKSON
BADER MEINHOF, RED ARMY FACTION,
HAD MR MANDELA GETTING OUT OF HIS CELLAR,
THE DALAI LHAMA WITH ALL THAT KARMA,
WE HAD CND AND HIV.
WE HAD VIETNAM AND LOVE AND PEACE
BUT NOBODY NOTICES YOU AND ME,
TOO DEAF TO HEAR TOO BLIND TO SEE
BUT WE STILL
LEARN NOTHING, KNOW NOTHING, CHANGE NOTHING.
WE HAD BLAIR PEACH AND THE QUEEN’S SPEECH
AND SO MANY YEARS OF WAR AND GRIEF.
WE HAD THE BERLIN WALL AND THE FIVE DAY WAR
NOBODY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE FIGHTING FOR.
WE HAD CHARLIE MANSON AND HOSTAGE RANSOM,
THE MARTYRS, THE MINERS, ALL TRIED TO DEFINE US,
WE SPLIT THE ATOM AND WE WENT TO THE MOON,
HAD RECESSIONS, DEPRESSIONS AND CRASHES AND BOOMS
BUT NOBODY NOTICES YOU AND ME,
TOO DEAF TO HEAR TOO BLIND TO SEE
BUT WE STILL
LEARN NOTHING, KNOW NOTHING, CHANGE NOTHING.
posted by Steve Broughton at 12:05 PM
15 Comments:
but try we must !
But we have you and me and if we thought of YOU and not just of ME - we have been dumbed down - run down - now we have to switch off the TV and switch on reality. No man is an island.
Yes we have had great people but we could all be great people we have to dump the greed and the ego but most of all we have to care!
Sally
"BUT WE STILL
LEARN NOTHING, KNOW NOTHING, CHANGE NOTHING"
Thats bleak and defeatist mate.
Most of us know enough ..... but we do nothing about it. Too busy earning our crust etc until the pain comes our way.
We let others like your brov do the graft even if it is only spreading the word and trying to get bums off seats and into the streets.
If nothing was worth trying for and nothing was achieved you wouldn't be free and, relatively speaking, you are.
Activate now. Join in.
Aktivo
All those clever words and for what? Cheer us up Steve. Its good to share but not always lol.
How many petitions have you signed, marches or demos attended , emails or letters sent to your MP or any one relevant recently? ( Not just you Steve lol)The government have just decided to back track on selling our forests off. 1 mill signed that petition. NOTHING CHANGES? - make it happen. Start small.
Mary and Bob
Your verse suggests there is no point in struggle because it changes NOTHING.
MUBARAK IS GONE.
Enough said.
Give Steve a break!
Give us a break from the dismal then. We need ideas for action not excuses for inaction. Ofcourse we can effect changes.
Hey Steve, maybe the idea of using the terms "Deaf" and "Blind" in this context is not the best. A Deaf friend of mine would certainly object.
Also let's have a look at what we can do rather than what we can't. That's certainly what the people you listed in your blog have done/ are doing.
give Steve a break,i think he is trying to say nothing changes because we dont get enough people to make changes,ie fuel protest a few years ago,everyone was behind it until it starting affecting their way of life,then the protesters were the scum of the earth.dont just sit there whinging do somthing
mick
What struck me as I watched the crowds stoning each other in Cairo was not who was right or wrong but how vicious and rabid both sides seemed. If there is any honour or political belief that can be justified by smashing someone’s brains out with a lump of concrete then perhaps someone would be kind enough to enlighten me. How looting, stealing and raping can be a valid part of a legitimate protest mystifies me. How can dropping a fire extinguisher from 100ft into a crowd of people be justified as your right to protest?
If we have to use violence to implement change, ultimately go to war to secure it, then I for one would prefer things to remain the same. We make the same mistakes over and over, we still expect our politicians to honour their promises no matter how many times we have seen different.
Most of the people of Egypt want what we all want, a free and equal democracy and justice for their people. Now instead of Mubarak they have military rule headed by a 79 year old general who is as stubborn and opposed to change as his predecessor and I fear for the consequences this will have.
Not all the people in my last blog were great people, some were extremely violent but the point intended is that none of their methods have had any effect in making all of us better people. Many of the protesters in Egypt wanted to be lifted from poverty as well as oppression and there it begins, sometimes poverty is where real kindness and humanity can be seen in abundance as opposed to in our world of material craving and excess.
As for ‘signing petitions and attending demos and protests’ and other forms of action I have had probably more than my share of that starting with being expelled from WQarwick school in 1964 for having a Beatle fringe! As for leaving people like ‘my brov’ to do the graft remember all the 40 years of EBB struggles and protest that we went through and get real.
The line in my blog ‘too deaf to hear too blind to see’ does not refer to deaf people any more than it does to blind people duh! The line ‘learn nothing,see nothing,change nothing.’ paraphrases many a political activist down the years including Martin Luther King.
Love the tag Activo by the way, mark of a real activist!
As for cheering you all up ,I’ve said before that is not the purpose of my blog or my responsibility in any way . You reap what you sow.
Most of the people of Egypt want what we all want, a free and equal democracy and justice for their people".
Would they have got it with out engaging in civil disobedience?
Would it have been ok to let Adolf have his way rather than fight him in a war? Would you not have supported the Suffragettes or the Tolpuddle Martyrs? Were the miners wrong to resist Thatchers attempts to smash the unions?
The only reason Mandella was detained for so long was because he refused the demand to give up arms. I think he still managed to bring change and a better life for his people. Isn't he an icon of great and meaningful change?
I still wear my old EBB shirt with the historic protest date lines on the back with great pride. I remember you wore one onstage. What has happened to all that Steve? Was that Edgar's stuff? I wonder where Arthur stands on this?
I've admired you all for many years but am so sad to see your writing decrying peaceful protest in the UK like some Tory Red Top rag. If you had been in Parliament Sq with us you would have seen just like in Egypt, it was the Government's thugs who provoked the violence. Yes there will always be an element of trouble makers but that cannot justify the inaction you promote and given your past it seems sad you have opted out or retired from the fray.
The Egyptians, who were mostly peaceful until Mubaraks thugs arrived, have WON the right to have free and fair, democratic elections. Should they not have bothered in case it is a difficult road? Would you not have marched with/ for them?
Can you quote some of the "many a political activist down the years including Martin Luther King" who paraphrased your words ‘learn nothing,see nothing,change nothing.’? Get real?
Regarding demos and protest you are certainly not too old. You could still support the fight against cuts in many ways or even march with us.
Like you, David Bowie told a journalist he had done his political bit, years before. Perhaps you don't think you will be affected by this Condem vandalism. Perhaps you voted for them and are happy with the outcome. How would we know Steve?
Are you totally non violent? Have you never lashed out verbally or physically to get your own way or because you are in pain? Do you not accept that much of what the world has that is good, was fought for?
Of course if you are a total pacifist then respect and credit to you. Some thing tells me you would fight when you decided you would though. Am I wrong?
Contextually your use of words Blind and Deaf would be seen by many today as offensive. Not all linguistic progress is pointless. In the end it is how Deaf and Blind people would feel about it, isn't it?
This was respectfully pointed out to you but you sneered it away with a "Duh". How about too white to care or too male to adapt?
Your struggles, as part of the EBB, were magnificent but why stop. Have your ideals changed? We march for those who cannot as well as for ourselves. No one I know who is involved in the protests is advocating violence come and see for yourself.
I don't want to be told, especially by, Steve Broughton of the EBB, that there is no point to political struggle. Who'd have thought it possible?
Still one Broughton with us is a lot better than none.
Aktivo not Activo lol( my given name is Stephen)
Come on Steve, you must agree with the a lot of the comments, with your history and background.
WHOA!!!
Your really going solo here Steve.
Cant stop the struggle because some arse holes exploit the situation. Do we just let the ConDem do what they like.? The forest issue is being fought by petition online,no violence there. Have ya signed it?
Dazza
if we are not part of the solution we must be part of the problem....no good just taking a deep breath...and crossing our fingers....and leaving it to others yeah! yeah! but... with regard to the struggle itself you could be a concientous objector ( oh yes!)and do charitable works. i guess the activists would expect you to report in though steve. quite right too ha ha!
i'm with you steve screw the people in the street stirring trouble and making it worse. it is so upsetting. give the Condem a break.lets see how some of these lefties would like it if they had to clean up the mess after.
max
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