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[sweetsoundofliberty]

The wrongs of some judged by many, the wrongs of many judged by none

[sweetsoundofliberty]

From 19th April 2020:

They were a great nation. A storied history of valiant freedom fighters, a populace full of ingenuity and perseverance. They had toiled hard and long to be where they were today, and their citizens lustily sang songs of glory and pride. The economy was booming, wealth was rising and oh just so many avenues to spend all their sweat and fears. There were some minor kinks, but they knew if they just followed the system and learnt how to dot their i’s and cross their t’s, say, pull themselves up by their bootstraps, they too could sit at the high table and have their fill of the lobster and caviar.

Then the pandemic hit.

It wasn’t too bad at first, cos it only happens in some places, yeah? Oh it happens in many places; but it only affects elderly people, no? The young also, you say? But we have come so far, progressed so much, we surely have everything we need to deal with it?

Of course we know we can’t have a vaccine yet but surely we have the very best facilities available and anyways the vaccine is just around the corner?

... So long?

... So few?

It’s ok, we've always held steadfast in the face of challenges, hadn’t we endured so much together? We are the chosen ones! We shall come together and stand as one in the face of this newest and greatest of challenges! Except you, you were a wastrel even before it hit. And you, weren’t you a fucking drunk? Oh and obviously not that one, they belong to a community that the rest of us know was instrumental in actively spreading the damn thing!

We’ll just sit at home and wait this out. Let the qualified people carry out the essential functions. What do you mean we told them they were good for nothing and didn’t really like paying them earlier? Can’t you see us clapping? I even played instruments for them, and my next door idiot neighbours, without a single musical bone in their collective bodies, banged pots and pans in their piety.

Look we’re doing the best we can. Of course we’ll support everyone. Most people. Some people. The important bits. The most essential bits of the community. The people. The businesses. The large businesses. Of course it doesn’t matter who paid whom how much in support of the forthcoming elections. We have a moral obligation and we are the best nation! Those businesses don’t have a nation? Of course they do, they are global and wasn’t it you naysayers today who asked everyone to embrace globalisation yesterday? Are you part of the pessimist gang? We can’t have that, since we are a great nation, one with a storied past, an exciting present and glorious future. We have stood on the shoulders of giants and are ready to stand on the bones of the poor and feeble if needed.

They were a great nation. This is how they wanted to be remembered.

[sweetsoundofliberty]

"It never occurred to me to plan against regret"

Rabih Alameddine

[sweetsoundofliberty]

That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people as well.

Heinrich Heine

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[sweetsoundofliberty]

The truest characters of ignorance Are vanity, and pride, and annoyance.

Samuel Butler

[sweetsoundofliberty]

"My Dear, do you want to know why men like me rise to the top?"

"It is not only because I am strong... But because others are WEAK."

"Men seek their own comfort and protection above all else. Like insects they scurry back into the dark when a torch is lit. I do not take away men's freedom... They give it willingly, in exchange for the promise of living one more day in their cozy little prisons of their own design."

[sweetsoundofliberty]

“Belief isn't simply a thing for fair times and bright days, I think. What is belief—what is faith—if you don’t continue in it after failure? Anyone can believe in someone, or something, that always succeeds, Mistress. But failure…ah, now, that is hard to believe in, certainly and truly. Difficult enough to have value, I think.

Mistborn: The Well of Ascension (Brandon Sanderson)

[sweetsoundofliberty]

“The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.”

Francis Bacon via futilitycloset.com

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“Nobles’ sons are one of nature’s great destructive forces, like floods or tornadoes. When you’re struck with one of these catastrophes, the only thing an average man can do is grit his teeth and try to minimize the damage.”

The Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss)

[sweetsoundofliberty]

"Like all shy young men, he had never hitherto looked upon himself as shy— preferring to attribute his distaste for the society of his fellows to some subtle rareness of soul"

Meet Mr. Mulliner (P.G. Wodehouse)

[sweetsoundofliberty]

“Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner.”

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen (P. G. Wodehouse)

[sweetsoundofliberty]

“He couldn't have been more emotional if he had been a big shot in the Foreign Office and I a heavily veiled woman diffusing a strange exotic scent whom he had caught getting away with the Naval Treaty.”

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen (P. G. Wodehouse)

[sweetsoundofliberty]

“Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its favor is that it is about eight times as good as any other method the human race has ever tried. Democracy's worst faults is that its leaders are likely to reflect the faults and virtues of their constituents - a depressingly low level, but what else can you expect? So take a look at Douglas and ponder that, in his ignorance, stupidity, and self-seeking, he much resembles his fellow Americans, including you and me... and that in fact he is a notch or two above the average. Then take a look at the man who will replace him if his government topples.”

Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert A. Heinlein)

[sweetsoundofliberty]

“This was long after hairdressers; in truth, ever since there have been women, there have been hairdressers, Adam being the first, though the King James scholars do their very best to muddy this point.”

Princess Bride (William Goldman)

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“I think some things are beyond words. The color blue can only be experienced, as can the scent of jasmine or the sound of a flute. The curve of a warm bared shoulder, the uniquely feminine softness of a breast, the startled sound one makes when all barriers suddenly yield, the perfume of her throat, the taste of her skin are all but parts, and sweet as they may be, they do not embody the whole. A thousand such details still would not illustrate it.”

Royal Assassin (Robin Hobb)

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Nehru's Popularity

"The extraordinary popular appeal of the Indian prime minister is best captured in the testimony of the confirmed Nehru-baiter D. F. Karaka, editor of the popular Bombay weekly, the Current. He was in the vast crowd at Chowpatty beach, one of 200,000 people gathered there, many standing in the sea. Karaka noted – no doubt to his regret — ‘the instant affinity between the speaker and his audience’. This is how the editor reported Nehru’s speech:

He had come to Bombay after along time, he told them. Many years.

He paused and looked at them with that wistful look he specialises in. In that pause, ominous for his political opponents, a thousand votes must have swung in his favour.

Yes, he felt a personal attachment to the city.

Pause.

Two thousand votes. It was like coming home.

Pause.

Five thousand votes.

In Bombay he had passed some of the happiest moments in his life. Yes, the happiest.

Five thousand votes . . .

He remembered those great moments so vividly. And some of the saddest moments too – the sad, hard “days of the [freedom] struggle".

Ten thousand votes for the Congress.

Pause.

‘By looking at the people who have struggled together with me in the fight for freedom, I derive freedom and strength,’ he said.

The affinity was complete.

Twenty thousand votes!

Pause.

A deep, sorrowful, soulful look in the fading twilight hour; with the air pregnant with emotion . . . He told the gathering that he had taken upon himself the role of a mendicant beggar. Amidst cheers, he said: "If at all I am a beggar, I am begging for your love, your affection and your enlightened co-operation in solving the problems which face the country."

Thirty thousand votes were sure for Nehru.

Pause.

A stir in the audience. A tear on the face of the man or woman sitting on the beach or standing on the shore.Two tears, a sari-end wiping them gently off a woman’s face. She would give her vote to Nehru no matter what anyone else said. Memories of Gandhi came back to the people – the days when Nehru stood beside the Mahatma. Nehru . . . was the man he left to us as his political heir.

“Fifty thousand votes! a hundred thousand! Two hundred thousand!"

India After Gandhi (Ramachandra Guha)