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"Carry on Carry on - cause nothing really
matters..."
Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody
Can you believe I'm
starting a story with the lyrics from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody? Of course
I always loved this "Rock Opera" and the legendary performance by
writer and lead singer Freddie Mercury and the boys.
In the music and
entertainment world the word "evergreen" has a powerful meaning and
this song is truly ever green. According
to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary it means:
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Definition of EVERGREEN
1. having
foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season
2. retaining
freshness or interest
Examples of EVERGREEN
Most pines are evergreen trees.
First Known Use of EVERGREEN - 1574
For purposes of this story
we rely on the 2. definition, the one that goes beyond mere biology or
botany. In the entertainment world this
means something that is not dated or has the ability to capture the minds,
souls and pocketbooks of the public.
The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, The Ten
Commandments and Grease all meet that standard in terms
of motion pictures. Okay, so maybe
Grease has not met the standard but it still has Olivia Newton John.
In music there are
examples like; This Land is my Land,
Blown in the Wind, America
the Beautiful, God Bless America,
Over the Rainbow, the Notre Dame Fight Song and Zip a Dee Doo Dah from Song
of the South.
Freddie Mercury's words
are timeless and reflect the age old battle between wanting to change the world
or leaving things as they might be. One
of my favorite authors, Ayn Rand wrote a book called Atlas Shrugged released back in my favorite year of all time, 1957.
A philosophical
masterpiece in my opinion, it was the last and longest fiction novel by
Ayn. Her book expresses the advocacy of reason, individualism, capitalism, and the failures of governmental coercion.
All seem rather important, even
to this day.
The virtually unseen hero
is John Galt who "rescues" prominent members of industry and hides
them while the government collapses from greed.
The rather sarcastic attitude
expressed by Freddie Mercury that nothing really matters is a call to arms much
like the mysterious "Who Is John Galt" signs that
appeared throughout Atlas Shrugged.
America has lost all her heroes and for the first time in
my memory not a one stands on the stage or sidelines waiting for the chance to
make a difference because we seem to have forgotten our mission in life as
Americans.
Our ancestors came here to
America
to fix what was wrong with the world they left behind. When we embrace the notion that nothing
really matters anymore we have embraced the dangerous concept that this is as
good as it gets.
Today things are at best okay. Some things are way out of balance and some
are not. Most certainly "the failures
of governmental coercion" are obvious.
So far our government
intelligence and not so intelligent agencies have stripped us of any semblance
of privacy by invading our phone conversations, our Internet email and social
web files, and monitoring our conventional mail.
 |
| Edward Snowden |
It only took a high school
dropout with our nation's highest security clearance and an English newspaper
to spill the beans on what Uncle Sam has been doing to our own citizens as well
as about every other sovereign nation, friend and foe alike.
For a while it actually looked
like nothing really matters when it comes to a government attack on our liberty
and freedom. Of course there has still
been no real backlash here in the colonies but countries like England, Germany,
Russia and China have all
had quite serious private conversations with Obama so we probably have not
heard the last.
Complacency, apathy and
ignorance are the dark side trump cards in this game of high stakes poker,
again echoing the sentiments of Freddie Mercury, nothing really matters.
It better matter! We are either on the precipice of catastrophe
or the cusp of salvation as mankind prepares to transition into the next and
fifth cycle of civilization as told by the Hopi Indian elders and prophecies.
Either nothing really
matters or everything really matters - the choice is ours.
Editors note: My
fascination with John Galt is not just a literary thing but I also have a band
called John Galt. Check them out at:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=629449
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One of the most powerful, respected and popular females to ever head a European nation, Angela Merkel of Germany, stunned the liberal world and socialist advocates worldwide by declaring Multiculturalism has failed in Germany.
Yet another example of the breakdown of European socialism that is being under reported in main stream American media, Merkel shattered the world of political correctness that seems to prevail here in America.
The Guardian newspaper in the UK reports that the Chancellor's assertion that onus is on new arrivals to do more to integrate into German society stirs anti-immigration debate.
Chancellor Angela Merkel says multiculturalism in Germany has 'failed utterly'. She tells a conference of the youth wing of her Christian Democratic Union party that Germans and foreign workers could not 'live happily side by side'. The speech has been interpreted as a dramatic shift to the right.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has courted growing anti-immigrant opinion in Germany by claiming the country's attempts to create a multicultural society have "utterly failed".
Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democratic Union party, Merkel said the idea of people from different cultural backgrounds living happily "side by side" did not work.
She said the onus was on immigrants to do more to integrate into German society.
"This [multicultural] approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, south of Berlin, yesterday.
Her remarks will stir a debate about immigration in a country which is home to around 4 million Muslims.
Last week, Horst Seehofer, the premier of Bavaria and a member of the Christian Social Union – part of Merkel's ruling coalition – called for a halt to Turkish and Arabic immigration.
In the past, Merkel has tried to straddle both sides of the argument by talking tough on integration but also calling for an acceptance of mosques.
But she faces pressure from within the CDU to take a harder line on immigrants who show resistance to being integrated into German society.
Yesterday's speech is widely seen as a lurch to the right designed to placate that element in her party.
Merkel said too little had been required of immigrants in the past and repeated her argument that they should learn German in order to cope in school and take advantage of opportunities in the labour market.
The row over foreigners in Germany has shifted since former central banker Thilo Sarrazin published a highly-controversial book in which he accused Muslim immigrants of lowering the intelligence of German society.
Sarrazin was censured for his views and dismissed from the Bundesbank, but his book proved popular and polls showed Germans were sympathetic with the thrust of his arguments.
One recent poll showed one-third of Germans believed the country was "overrun by foreigners".
It also found 55% of Germans believed that Arabs are "unpleasant people", compared with the 44% who held the opinion seven years ago.
In her speech, Merkel said the education of unemployed Germans should take priority over recruiting workers from abroad, while noting that Germany could not get by without skilled foreign workers.
The chancellor's remarks appear to confirm a suspicion that she has sympathy with Sarrazin's anti-immigrant rhetoric. On Friday, he declared: "Multiculturalism is dead".
Other members of Merkel's government disagree. In a weekend newspaper interview, her labour minister, Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), raised the possibility of lowering barriers to entry for some foreign workers in order to fight the lack of skilled workers in Europe's largest economy.
"For a few years, more people have been leaving our country than entering it," she told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
"Wherever it is possible, we must lower the entry hurdles for those who bring the country forward."
The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) has said Germany lacks about 400,000 skilled workers.
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