Civilizations in decline are consistently characterised by a tendency towards standardization and uniformity.
quote by Arnold Toynbee
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Love In Decline
Love in decline
By: jimmy buffett, michael utley, will jennings
1984
Left one in the drizzlin rain
Found one on the mornin plane
Layin out his well-known line
Bought her some gin - that did her in
Now their makin love behind the occupied sing
Chorus:
Just a livin example of love in decline
Lookin so hard and so little time
Goin ninety to nothin and flyin stone blind
Just a livin example of love in decline
Miyama hotel disco bar
He asks if shes a movie star
Her eyes light up theyre going far
No time for a room - it happened too soon
Now theyre makin love in her rent-a-car
Chorus:
Thats just another example of love in decline
Lookin so hard and so little time
Goin ninety to nothin and flyin stone blind
Just a livin example of love in decline
Red-eyed on a midnight flight
Hes a little tired but she looks just right
He asks for dark so she hits the light
Engines whine - seats recline
Theyre makin love till the mornin light
Chorus:
Just a shinin example of love in decline
Lookin so hard and so little time
Goin ninety to nothin and flyin stone blind
Just a livin example of love in decline
Just a livin example of love in decline
Just a livin example of love in decline
song performed by Jimmy Buffett
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Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.
quote by Erich Fromm
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Out Is Through
Every time you raise your voice
I see the greener grass
Every time you run for cover
I see this pasture
Every time we're in a funk
I picture a different choice
Every time we're in a rut
This distant grandeur
My tendency to want to do away feels natural
My urgency to dream of softer places feels understandable and I know
The only way out is through
The faster we're in the better
The only way out is through ultimately
The only way out is through
The only way we'll feel better
The only way out is through ultimately
Every time I'm confused
I think there must be easier ways
Every time our horns are locked on toweling throwing
Every time we're at a loss, we've bolted from difficulty
Anytime we're still made of final bowing
My tendency to want to hide away feels easier and
The tendency is picturing another place comforting to go and I know
The only way out is through
The faster we're in the better
The only way out is through ultimately
The only way out is through
The only way we'll feel better
The only way out is through ultimately
We could just walk away and hide our hands in the sand
We could just call it quits, only to start over again
With somebody else
Every time we're stuck in struggle, I'm down for the count that down
Every time I dream of quick fix I'm assuaged
Now I know it's hard when it's through
And I'm damned if I don't know quick fix way
What formerly was treatment silent's now outdated
My tendency to want to run feels unnatural now
The urgency to want to give to you what I want most feels good and I know
The only way out is through
The faster we're in the better
The only way out is through ultimately
The only way out is through
The only way we'll feel better
The only way out is through ultimately
The only way out is through
The faster we're in the better
The only way out is through ultimately
The only way out is through
The only way we'll feel better
[...] Read more
song performed by Alanis Morissette
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Instigator
Escalations,
Appear in their sights.
Warmongers hunger to incite fights.
Determined to burn with precise agitation!
Aggrevating civilizations...
With more repeated irritation.
An instigator like a cancer spreads.
Thirsting on conflicts,
To leave many dead!
Mourning victims with salutes and praises.
Something is in the water,
To daze their crazed heads!
Mourning victims,
With salutes and hollow praises...
Something is in that drinking water drank.
Affecting their minds and dazing their heads!
An instigator like a cancer spreads.
Thirsting on conflicts,
To leave many dead!
An instigator
Instigating
Instigations fed!
Escalations,
Appear in their sights.
Warmongers hunger to incite fights.
Determined to burn with precise agitation!
Aggrevating civilizations...
With more repeated irritation.
An instigator
Instigating
Instigations fed!
An instigator like a cancer spreads.
Thirsting on conflicts,
To leave many dead!
An instigator
Instigating
Instigations fed!
Thirsting on conflicts,
To leave many dead!
This one never sleeps at all.
With infested instigations...
Snuggled up and brought to bed!
An instigator like a cancer spreads.
[...] Read more
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Clash Of Civilizations
With prescience, he sang the about the clash
that faces our uncivil civilizations,
whose differences might lead to nuclear ash
descending from the skies on all the nations.
He wrote that peaceful plowshares would be turned
to swords because of differences between
religions whose intensity still burned,
destructively addictive as morphine,
far more intensely in the heart and mind
than ideologies that atrophied
like plants for which the prophet Jonah pined
when Ninevites accepted his new creed.
The clash that Samuel Huntington foresaw
materialized, we saw, on 9/11
when we found out some people wish to soar
straight from earth’s kingdom to hubristic heaven,
and in autos da fe compound their error
by their rejection of reality, and try
to change the universe with acts of terror
performed the very moment that they die.
Sam Huntington may once have been a loner,
but since his views do not defy belief
we must now all acknowledge this late Jonah,
Greek chorus of aggression and great grief.
Inspired by Tamar Lewin’s obituary in the NYT, December 29,2008 of Samuel P. Huntington, who died on December 24,2008:
By the late 1960s, Dr. Huntington had turned his attention to foreign affairs. His 1969 book “Political Order in Changing Societies, ” still widely used in graduate seminars, analyzed political and economic development in the third world. In recent years, Dr. Huntington was best known — and, since 9/11, acclaimed — for “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, ” a 1996 book based on a 1993 Foreign Policy article. The book predicted that in the post-cold-war world, violent conflict would arise from cultural and religious differences among the major civilizations. The spread of American pop culture, he wrote, did not mean the spread of American attitudes. The book has an almost uncanny image of what was to come: “Somewhere in the Middle East, a half-dozen young men could well be dressed in jeans, drinking Coke, listening to rap, and between their bows to Mecca, putting together a bomb to blow up an American airliner.”
12/29/08
poem by Gershon Hepner
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Counting Skeletons Maze Masterpiece War
counting skeletons
broken dreams
upon destruction rocks
lost dead souls
who died in revolutions wars
lost grand causes
festering generations
decline in dissent protests battles
paid for in blood baths
wasted lives
rotten corpses
dead heroes
scared or reluctant sacrifice souls
afraid to offend authorities rogue countries
play non-confrontational activities
I according to teenage character summaries
lack appeasement walk boldly where angels
fear to tread without orders unpredictable steps
nothing now apparently surprises
(communist/overt) dictatorships
initially often deceive their citizens
more honest sincere dictators
in home grown brutality policies
plan comparisons tests futures
dictator futures
are mind battles wells
blood bath souls...
Egyptian futures
are mind battles
wells blood cast souls
human rights
watch some watchers
pray pain tears
who naive ever believes
has ever believed histories
are progressive certainties
history time progresses
regions conflict civilizations
[...] Read more
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Alphabet Artistry
ALPHABET ARTISTRY
Able acrostic artist’s alignment adds air.
Alliteration asks acknowledgement aware,
Bard’s brain bequeaths benchmark billet, blends braid bans blare,
Beware braggarts’ boasts, banality, betrayal backstair.
Classic composition, clear content, compare
Creative couplets, compliment competent care.
Drawing descriptions deftly displayed debonair
Droll doggerel dubbed dextrous, doubts dismayed. Declare
Entertaining epistle’s extent e’er ensnare
Easy erudition evident everywhere
Fair fancy’s flight futility forbade, fine flair
Flickering forever – feeble fops fade – fan fair.
Great gifts, gainsay gameplay grandiloquent, gross glare,
Gain gleeful guests, greet gallant guy, girl, gent, goad galere.
Here he has honed his heavenly homemade highbrow
Handwritten harvest, handmade harlequinade … how?
Insight inviting idyll irreverent, ifere
Invents ideas intelligent, intent inhere
Judicious jumble joke jest judges jaded jeer,
Joins joyful jingle jamboree jacent jardinière
Kaleidoscopic knowledge knits kaross. Kowtow!
Knight’s kakemono knack karmic kudos. Know
Lines lyrical, lightheartedly linked, laid layer
Liltingly linger, lasting leisure lent lustreware
Mute melancholy! Muse’s masquerade mayor
Master musters magic meter, music made midair
Neat new needlecraft, never negligent ne’er
Neutral, negative nonsense, nonevent nowhere.
Ode’s object - open offering - obeyed order
Onomatopoeia overlayed over
Poetic passions, purposefully pent, prepare
Portrait pasquinade polyvalent poetic pair
Quick-witted quips quell quitters querulent, queer.
Quizmaster quality quite quiets querent. Quair’s
Rhymic reel responsive, readymade, reads rare
Reverberation, readily relaid repair.
Stanzas succinct, shrewd signposts sapient, should share
Such skillful stringing signals softly sent. So spare
The thesis, tested, triumphs, teasing trade that there
Takes time to twin terms taut, taught twined torsade tough to tear
Usage unexpected unpenitent, - unfair?
Unravels uniformity, unpent unaware.
Vitality, vim, vetoed vehement vaporware,
Vivacious verse’s veriloquent vent via vare
When willing writer worked with wonderment where
Weaving worthwhile wordplay wreath while weekend went west ware.
Xylophonic xenagogue xeroxes XX XY,
Xenial xesturgy xenogamy x-rays Xerxes, xanthous Xanthippe
Yet Ylem, Yggdrasil, yug yesterday, - yare
[...] Read more
poem by Jonathan Robin
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The Believer's Jointure : Chapter II.
Containing the Marks and Characters of the Believer in Christ; together with some further privileges and grounds of comfort to the Saints.
Sect. I.
Doubting Believers called to examine, by marks drawn from their love to Him and his presence, their view of his glory, and their being emptied of Self-Righteousness, &c.
Good news! but, says the drooping bride,
Ah! what's all this to me?
Thou doubt'st thy right, when shadows hide
Thy Husband's face from thee.
Though sin and guilt thy spirit faints,
And trembling fears thy fate;
But harbour not thy groundless plaints,
Thy Husband's advent wait.
Thou sobb'st, 'O were I sure he's mine,
This would give glad'ning ease;'
And say'st, Though wants and woes combine,
Thy Husband would thee please.
But up and down, and seldom clear,
Inclos'd with hellish routs;
Yet yield thou not, nor foster fear:
Thy Husband hates thy doubts.
Thy cries and tears may slighted seem,
And barr'd from present ease;
Yet blame thyself, but never dream
Thy Husband's ill to please.
Thy jealous unbelieving heart
Still droops, and knows not why;
Then prove thyself to ease thy smart,
Thy Husband bids the try.
The following questions put to the
As scripture-marks, may tell
And shew, what'er thy failings be,
Thy Husband loves thee well.
MARKS.
Art thou content when he's away?
Can earth allay thy pants?
If conscience witness, won't it say,
Thy Husband's all thou wants?
[...] Read more
poem by Ralph Erskine
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The tendency of man's nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow downwards. There are none but have this tendency to good, just as all water flows downwards. Now by striking water and causing it to leap up, you may make it go.
quote by Ni'matullah Wali
Added by Lucian Velea
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To Manage Handled Scandals
Some handle scandals,
Like they've had them before!
As if to manage handled scandals.
I wont leave my house,
Until I check the back door.
And blow out all the candles,
To lock up safe and to feel secured.
I like a romantic atmosphere.
But with someone that's free of scandal.
A sip of wine with candlelight appearing near.
On a one on one...
That's all I can handle.
Discussing private business,
In the midst of close friends...
Invites the whispering of lips,
Or two.
If any two wish happiness,
They should...
Keep other people distant.
Since people have a tendency to snoop,
And move...
Scandalized unproven scoop,
As they choose.
People have a tendency to snoop,
And move...
Scandalized unproven scoop,
As they choose.
Discussing private business in a group,
Is old news.
But no one wishing happiness,
Should invite gossip.
Since...
People have a tendency to snoop,
And move...
Scandalized unproven scoop,
As they choose.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Thousands of years and many civilizations have defined a marriage as the union between one man and one woman. With few exceptions, those civilizations that did not follow that perished.
quote by Randy Neugebauer
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Civilization Purpose Secrets
massive complex
inter-dimensional
works of art
civilization
composite layers
superimposed
complexities
civilization
strata shifts
origins not readings
theory civilizations
products transitions
origins thoughts
desires quests
comings of ages
hunter gather
stone ages
metal worker
agrarian societies
empire expansions
industrial revolutions
ideas as thought keys
imagination solutions
knowledge time quests
thoughts fathers to deeds
knowledge transformation seeds
civilizations society believes
minds power creations
minds fuel transformations
minds manifest changes
poem by Terence George Craddock
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As I Sat Alone By Blue Ontario's Shores
AS I sat alone, by blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these mighty days, and of peace return'd, and the dead
that return no more,
A Phantom, gigantic, superb, with stern visage, accosted me;
Chant me the poem, it said, that comes from the soul of America--
chant me the carol of victory;
And strike up the marches of Libertad--marches more powerful yet;
And sing me before you go, the song of the throes of Democracy.
(Democracy--the destin'd conqueror--yet treacherous lip-smiles
everywhere,
And Death and infidelity at every step.)
A Nation announcing itself,
I myself make the only growth by which I can be appreciated, 10
I reject none, accept all, then reproduce all in my own forms.
A breed whose proof is in time and deeds;
What we are, we are--nativity is answer enough to objections;
We wield ourselves as a weapon is wielded,
We are powerful and tremendous in ourselves,
We are executive in ourselves--We are sufficient in the variety of
ourselves,
We are the most beautiful to ourselves, and in ourselves;
We stand self-pois'd in the middle, branching thence over the world;
From Missouri, Nebraska, or Kansas, laughing attacks to scorn.
Nothing is sinful to us outside of ourselves, 20
Whatever appears, whatever does not appear, we are beautiful or
sinful in ourselves only.
(O mother! O sisters dear!
If we are lost, no victor else has destroy'd us;
It is by ourselves we go down to eternal night.)
Have you thought there could be but a single Supreme?
There can be any number of Supremes--One does not countervail
another, any more than one eyesight countervails another, or
one life countervails another.
All is eligible to all,
All is for individuals--All is for you,
No condition is prohibited--not God's, or any.
All comes by the body--only health puts you rapport with the
universe. 30
Produce great persons, the rest follows.
[...] Read more
poem by Walt Whitman
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Civilization may.........
Civilizations may emerge fresh and vanish
Remains may be found later on but not finish
Excavations may shed some light on glorious past
There may be some reasons for its extinctions very fast
How does nation emerge with historical traditions?
Deep rooted love for holy land without condition
Every citizen ready to shed blood for its pride and honor
All to defend irrespective of old or young major or minor
Nation may remain within secured boundaries
It may have all the prosperity with big industries
Peace and stability may still elude the nation
Other neighbors may not like to have good relations
How can sentiments and attachments remain intact without identity?
Stable nation with strong defense is all call of the day and necessity
Nation can only prosper and rise with strong and resolute action
We the people of nation has every right to defend without any reaction
Can any nation prosper without popular support?
Is it not essential to live as one nation with good rapport?
Does then any nation may you look towards you for any weak spot?
I think they will refrain from any mad misadventure and dare not
It will be great shame if we have to live under constant fear
It will be living death if constantly agony and pain we have to bear
Nation will pass through identity crisis and suffer with humiliation
To live under shame may add insult and find no reconciliation
It is right said “don’t ask what country is doing for you”
But ask “what you are doing for the country”
It has deep meaning in it and quiet sensible thought behind
Any nation can’t afford to go without it and reasonably find
No nation can advance and have identity of its own
If it has no clear policy and stand clearly known
At least people of other nations may look toward with a respect
They will think twice before and enter into pact
Ancient civilizations were knows for its tolerance
“Live and let others live” was slogan free from any interfearence
This always formed corner stone of policy
Liberty and freedom were not the words from mighty
Liberal thoughts must prevail and message should go across
Let there be the free world with liberty thoughts and no threats to pose
No intimidation of any sort with mutual territorial integrity in tact
Let there be free flow of people to uphold the humanity in fact
poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
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Immortal Truth Burning Ink Written Words
civilizations burning torch domino fallen
flames back into distant dawn of antiquity
history written in cuneiform baked tablets
wedge-shaped incision cut into body tissue
organ beating epochs spear pierced surgery
planting new rulers people over ash empires
'Fire burns where fire surrenders to burning
When burning requires the fire it escapes'
flame is an immortal truth burning ink written words
flame reaps empires human history burnt in flames
anarchy conquest desolation throughout history reins
to build takes cooperative work many inspired hands
to burn destroy just one despot mad man with a torch
tyrant with absolute powers is limelight cast off stage
new rule change bides time waits to leap steal upstage
fallen are slain enslaved or skill employed at set wage
civilizations rule of law battles with beast escape cage
triumph history trumpets in new era turns a new page
Copyright © Terence George Craddock
Quotation from “AFIRE ME O’MY BURNING” by Pranab K. Chakraborty.
poem by Terence George Craddock
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When Laws Are A Crime Against Humanity
Is it always lawful to follow every letter of the law?
Is it ever lawful to deliberately break a nation's law?
What if laws themselves are a crime against humanity?
Some say may my country ever be right but my country
right or wrong this sentiment will accept support tyranny.
I the Carl Schurz version do advocate firmly resolutely
'My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right;
and if wrong, to be set right.' Is a moral conscience fight.
To slaves who tremble fearfully obey unjust laws
I say many famous past so called great civilizations;
passed laws making it legal to own fellow human beings
live stock to be bought sold beaten killed at whim of owners;
to aid free slaves help in any way was against grim cruel laws
to be caught in such attempts meant torture death sentences;
yet the right of all human beings to religious personal freedoms is
a sacred indelible right great civilizations uphold high principles.
poem by Terence George Craddock
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A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim.
quote by L. Neil Smith
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The principle of asceticism never was, nor ever can be, consistently pursued by any living creature. Let but one tenth part of the inhabitants of the earth pursue it consistently, and in a day's time they will have turned it into a Hell.
quote by Jeremy Bentham
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Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.
quote by Maya Angelou
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These Are New Days We Live
Difficult it is,
To maintain a persona...
Of righteousness.
With a squeaky clean integrity.
When one has been revealed to be...
An abuser of truth,
Who tell lies consistently.
Difficult it is,
To use the same tired tactics.
When one has been discovered,
To have been undermining others.
With no shame connected to it!
How can someone like this,
Retrieve a dignity?
Or come face to face...
With those backstabbed and disgraced?
How can anyone replace,
So much time 'wasted'?
Difficult it is,
To maintain a persona...
Of righteousness.
With a squeaky clean integrity.
When one has been revealed to be...
An abuser of truth,
Who tell lies consistently.
And lives a life that secretly deceives.
There is only one alternative,
Someone like this chooses...
When that 'cat-has-been-pulled-out-of-the-bag'!
Although,
The fact of the act of this is quite sad!
And a running away to hide is done.
To protect one's pride...
In familiarized denial!
That's it.
One puts oneself on trial.
To self inflict their own judgements.
That's it!
To run and hide has become their custom.
Too many people like this,
Can be observed as mentally sick!
[...] Read more
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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