the rise of civ

I've been remiss and unobservant.  I read a few lines of the song and I didn't know what to make of it so I didn't go any further,  But on rereading it, it's pretty good.  I like the little story, though the parallel between a soldier doing his stint, and a Nazi serving his sentence seems like kind of a gap, but if we are to make art we have to cut a few corners.  The chorus reminds me of Dylan's Ballad in Plain D:

Ah, my friends from the prison, they ask unto me
“How good, how good does it feel to be free?”
And I answer them most mysteriously
“Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?”

But wait, I don't remember that Beagles was a guard at Spandau.  Maybe for a spell, but  not for his whole, um, sentence.  Being locked up with the prisoners is a nice touch.  If you were a guard, how come you only saw Speer once?  Did you actually exchange smiles?  More details on that meeting please.

Jam on Jerry's Rock, how did that work in?  I googled it expending to hear like some meeting between Eric Clapton and Jerry Garcia, but it's one of those sad old folk songs, that I, who normally likes bleak movies and books, just can't get into.

Apparently Old Dog never did share a sack of goobers with some Bama babe in his camo car, a pity,  but I am looking for details.  Were they available every couple blocks like front yard smoker bbqs in Texas?  Did they come in a plain paper sack, were they as good as that long ago magazine article said they were?  Youth wants to know.

And that looks like it clears the board for the weekend.  I know how much you lads enjoyed my exposition on liberalism, income inequality, and the end of the world, and here's another idea I am kicking around, that's kind of related to that whole liberalism thing, but I am not sure of where it is going.

But I know where it is starting, with the discovery of agriculture.  Before that we don't know much, back when we were hunting and gathering we didn't have any written language .  I guess there's that oral tradition and there was lore passed on by the elders, but let's face it, we spent thousands and thousands of years wandering around in the woods and getting nowhere.

I saw on tv years ago that at first everybody farmed their own land, and if they had a chief it was just for the duration of some emergency, and while he was chief he had to farm his own land at the same time because nobody was giving him anything.  Eventually the village got so big that it was just one emergency after another and I guess the villagers got together and agreed to tend the chief's garden if he would devote his whole time to running things. and eventually he needed some assistants, and we are seeing the rise of the class that doesn't get their hands dirty.

But it's good because these guys have a bit of leisure, time to sit around and think about things, time to invent a little doodad to ease the work of the guys getting their hands dirty, do a little technology, a little bit of turning folklore into culture, a little bit of knowledge which is often useful, but it doesn't have to be.

More later