What would the "Greats" say?

[hardheadjarhead]

How would the great philosophers, authors, pundits and politicians of the past comment on the upcoming election, were they alive today?

Or, even better, how would we paraphrase their lines to fit the current political events taking place today?

I thought this might be fun, so I'll start off...and I invite others to join me:



"Never in the course of human history have so few done so much to so many."

--Winston Churchill, commenting on the 2000 election debacle.

-------

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that votes for me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in Washington now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That voted for me upon this election day.

--John Kerry, addressing the NAACP (with thanks to W. Shakespeare).

-------

So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man,
When Kerry whispers low thou must,
Edwards replies, I can.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, in reference to Kerry's pick of a running mate.


Anybody got anything to add? Peachmonkey? Feisty? Michael? Robert?


Regards,


Steve

 

[Feisty Mouse]

lol - wow, Steve, those are excellent! I think you have the "usual suspects" pegged. I'll have to meditate upon this (must...find...Complete Shakespeare...!) and come up with something as good.

I especially liked the Kerry addressing the NAACP!

 

[hardheadjarhead]

Okay, Feisty. Here's another one.


"Great God! I'd rather be
A pagan in a creed outworn;
So might I, yearning for past liberty
Have glimpse that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of a candidate rise from the sea;
And hear John Kerry blow his wreathed horn."

--Disgruntled Republicans who are voting against Bush.
(With thanks to William Wordsworth.)



Regards,


Steve

 

[michaeledward]

Thinking .... Thinking ....

Mike

 

[hardheadjarhead]

But man, proud man;
Drest in a little brief authority
Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep.

William Shakespeare
"Alls Well That Ends Well", II, ii, 117.

(This is unedited and original text)


Regards


Steve

 

[michaeledward]

OK ... Here's my shot ... I may need to have Robert proof-read it for me though ...

AT this, his second contest to seek the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I fear, reasonably unsatisfactory and discouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.



On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil lawsuits, and upcoming wars. Most dreaded it, many sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to taking the Union without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

One-twentieth of the whole population were Americans, not distributed generally over the globe, but localized in part of it. These Americans had amongst them a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this peculiar and powerful interest was the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this peculiar and powerful interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the civil liberties for a short time. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease or that priori, it never existed. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the Bible and pray to the God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that the Bush Presidency is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both Left and Right this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of the Bush Presidency may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be transferred to Haliburton, and until every drop of blood drawn with the hi-jacked aircraft shall be paid by a JDAM, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the voters are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.



​

I wouldn't have known it had I just read the original ... but that is Lincoln's second inaugural address. The bold font words have been changed to accuse the President.



It's a bit disjointed .... I'll go back to thinking some more.

Mike

 

[Flatlander]

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."

"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."

"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."


- Albert Einstein

 

[Flatlander]

"More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly."
-- Woody Allen

"Choose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you."
-- Yassir Arafat

"To make the right choices in life, you have to get in touch with your soul. To do this, you need to experience solitude, which most people are afraid of, because in the silence you hear the truth and know the solutions."
-- Deepak K. Chopra

"To govern is always to choose among disadvantages."
-- General Charles De Gaulle

"When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before."
-- Mae West

 

[Feisty Mouse]

hhjh - just thought you should know I used those images in my Developmental Psych class, when talking about the development of emotions, and Darwin's work on the subject in comparing humans and animals. it was effective.

 

[RCastillo]

They'd say this great nation is in trouble, and getting worse.

 

[hardheadjarhead]

hhjh - just thought you should know I used those images in my Developmental Psych class, when talking about the development of emotions, and Darwin's work on the subject in comparing humans and animals. it was effective.

What images?


Regards,


Steve