Thursday, November 06, 2008

The Change We Need


The Times They Are A-Changin'

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

Copyright ©1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

12 comments:

Jeannie said...

As I think I've said before - Obama may not be the right man but at least he'll be different. I'm not saying that different is better either. We live in interesting times.

Lexcen said...

To "live in interesting times" is a Chinese curse.

Anonymous said...

The change who needs?

Lexcen said...

Not my slogan. In fact it's as empty of meaning as the classic Australian election slogan "It's Time". Maybe the more meaningless the slogan the more successful the campaign. I'm not sure because I lost interest in voting many years ago.

Anonymous said...

Ah. A true philosopher.

Did you ever see the movie "Titus" starring Tony Hopkins? It's on YouTube. It's one of the reasons I still vote.

Lexcen said...

No. But I will. Thanks for the reference.

Anonymous said...

Power is not something one should ever turn down. After all...

Hamlet, Act IV, Scene IV

What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and god-like reason
To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event,
A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward, I do not know
Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'
Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
To do't.
Examples gross as earth exhort me:
Witness this army of such mass and charge
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death and danger dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

Lexcen said...

From Don Quixote,
Sancho, the realist, tells his master, "I sometimes think that all you tell me of knighthood, kingdoms, empires and islands is all windy blather and lies" (Book 1, Part 15).

Anonymous said...

I see you are also one of the Wise Men of Gotham. Unfortunately, the king has already built his road through my village...

For now, Quixote is still welcome to tilt at windmills of his own choosing. It's my ardent desire to see that it remain that way. The last thing we men all need is a new Pope to send us all out upon some "tragic" new crusade. Better to praise folly than live tragedy.

JP said...

Obama will be different. Like say...losing an arm would be different. Having two all these years has not really helped me be more happy, I don't think. Maybe something different would help fix my misery. So let's get rid of an arm. I don't know how different it would be or if it would be bad or good, but it would be different so why not try it? So we cut off an arm and guess what...it's worse. great. Now my life sucks and I have one less arm. Now what? Can'r sew it back on, too late for that. Can't grow a new one. Damn, that different idea really sucked after all, but I was just too eager for change I didn't bother to ask exactly WHAT KIND of change? W eare fucked. Obama will destroy America and it's too late now to fix it. And everyone was adequately warned, just too many were too blinded and stupid to to see.

Unknown said...

fj,

I love TItus Andronicus!! Down with Saturnine!! And down with the blind loyalty of Titus. Down with the evil of Aaron. And death to Tamara, queen of the goths!

So who is left to vote for?

www.culturism.us

Anonymous said...

So who is left to vote for?

Yourself.

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