Some thematic music:
As the dust settles, see our dreams,
all coming true
it depends on you,
If our times, they are troubled times,
show us the way,
tell us what to do.As our faith, maybe aimless blind,
hope our ideals and
our thoughts are yours
And believing the promises,
please make your claims
really so sincere.Be our guide, our light and our way of life
and let the world see the way we lead our way.
Hopes, dreams, hopes dreaming that all our
sorrows gone.In your hands, holding everyone’s
future and fate
It is all in you,
Make us strong build our unity,
all men as one
it is all in you.Be our guide, our light and our way of life
and let the world see the way we lead our way.
Hopes, dreams, dreaming that all our sorrows
gone forever.
If you aren’t acquainted with Gentle Giant, it was an early prog-rock group – for an exposition about prog-rock, consult this invaluable guide — that produced quite a lot of impressive music. The above is a track from its concept album The Power And The Glory. It’s an excellent example of G.G. at its adventurous best.
The central concept of The Power And The Glory is the rise of a tyrant. Initially wildly popular, borne upon the adulation of the crowd, he comes into essentially complete and unopposed power. However, as his schemes are seen to fail – drum roll, please – he defends them with religious fervor. Ultimately, he refuses to relinquish power.
The pattern is as old as history. It’s powered by a dream: the dream of a painless, effortless solution to all that ails us, that comes to be personified in a single individual. But dreams are ephemeral. We awaken from them to a world with inviolable natural laws. Those laws are indifferent to our dreams.
There is no mortal who can fulfill our dreams. Beware the “cult of personality.” Insist on specific proposals, objective evidence, and verifiable results. Better still: Insist upon being left alone to work on your own dreams.
Just a reminder.
