Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

1 January 2013

We ended the year 2012 yesterday by citing the last stanza of the poem “Hellas” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). Today we begin the year 2013 by citing the first stanza of the same poem:

“The world’s great age begins anew,

The golden years return,

The earth doth like a snake renew

Her winter weeds outworn:

Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam

Like wrecks of a dissolving dream.”

What is our dream for 2013?

1. A swift end to the butchery in Syria.

2. The retreat of western occupation forces from Afghanistan.

3. Justice for the Palestinians.

4. Engagement with, instead of the encirclement of, Iran.

5. The exit of Greece from the Eurozone.

6. The liberation of Tibet.

7. A revolution in China.

8. Abolition of the secret police worldwide (that includes our secret police as well as theirs).

9. The ouster of Putin and the oligarchs in Russia.

10. The election of Arundhati Roy as Prime Minister of India.

11. An Arab Spring uprising in Saudi Arabia.

12. The replacement of competition by cooperation as the cornerstone of the world economy.

Is that all, you ask?

Well, no, there is a lot more, but that’s enough to be going on with.

Dream on!  You say.

Well, why not?

Will it happen? You ask.

Probably not.

Why bother then?

Dum spiro, spero.

The thing is never to give up.

You don’t know a door is closed till you push against it.

“The dream alone is of interest. What is life without a dream?”

 Edmond Rostand (1868-1918), French playwright. The citation is from Act 1, Scene 4, of “La Princesse lointaine” (1895).

Le seul rêve intéresse,

Vivre sans rêve, qu’est-ce?

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 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Partitocracy v. Democracy (20 July 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Capitalism in practice  (4 July 2012) 

5.Ladder  (21 June 2012)

 6. A tale of two cities (1)  (6 June 2012)

 7. A tale of two cities (2)  (7 June 2012)

 8. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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