July 25, 2009

Something about the events of this last week has me thinking again...

... about this old Bob Dylan poem, that I thought about a lot, circa 1965:
first of all two people get
together an' they want their doors
enlarged. second of all, more
people see what's happenin' an'
come t' help with the door
enlargement. the ones that arrive
however have nothin' more than
"let's get these doors enlarged"
t' say t' the ones who were
there in the first place. it follows then that
the whole thing revolves around
nothing but this door enlargement idea.
third of all, there's a group now existin'
an' the only thing that keeps them friends
is that they all want the doors enlarged.
obviously, the doors're then enlarged
fourth of all,
after this enlargement
the group has t' find
something else t' keep
them together or
else the door enlargement
will prove t' be
embarrassing
From the back cover of "Another Side of Bob Dylan."

17 comments:

Fred4Pres said...

Steyn on poetry and Gates.

Amexpat said...

Half of the people can be part right all of the time,
Some of the people can be all right part of the time.
But all the people can't be all right all the time

I think Bob Dylan said that.

traditionalguy said...

Dylan's song "Don't think Twice, It's Alright" is the perfect song to sing to Barack Obama who has just wasted all of our precious time.

traditionalguy said...

Just insert "Barack" for "Babe" in Don't Think Twice It's Alright and sing that as Ann's latest song to our recently elected president.

halojones-fan said...

Ha! It's Jerry Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy.

Elliott A said...

I'm glad there are people here who read SF.

To quote another 60's folk writer, "When will we ever learn? when will we ever learn?"

themightypuck said...

The 60's was a great time for bad rock poetry. Remember The Moody Blues.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...
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Lem the artificially intelligent said...
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Donna B. said...

What if Gates were white and Crowley black? How would that have played out?

And is it racist to even ask?

Penny said...

"...after this enlargement
the group has t' find
something else t' keep
them together or
else the door enlargement
will prove t' be
embarrassing"

And so begins the story of why special interest groups decide their new duty is to codify all their good work into laws that the rest of us should follow, whether we see the need or not.

Penny said...

And a corollary to the above...

Anytime you see a head of steam building up, you can expect a few new rules to follow.

Penny said...

And as Althouse started this post...

"Something about the events of this last week has me thinking again..."

That's the lawyer in you, my dear. You can smell where this is going.

And there is some member of that door enlarger posse, or, um, lawmaker, or congress person, if you prefer, who is drafting new legislation as we speak.

Penny said...

Oh geez...Scratch all those prior comments of mine. I just realized I was looking through 2009 glasses at what happened in 1965.

Duh....

Cardboard FLOTUS said...

I wish we had a wise Latina available to help us sort this out.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

When the only tool you have is a hammer, pretty soon every problem begins to look like a nail.