DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Parnassus, v.1, issue 1, 1940s

Transcribe
Translate

Parnassus, v.1, issue 1, 1940s

Page 3

As long as the world is based upon a system of profit for the few and corn husks for the many, that brave her world with all its Paulian pantaloons and Krupaish gadgets will amount to so much tinsel. And tinsel makes a rather indigestible diet! The French Court in the Eighteenth Century tried living off tinsel -- they sickened and died of it before the century was out. A lot of people are trying to live off the same diet today, and they're already complaining of bellyaches.

But then plenty people today are complaining of bellyaches. The courtesans weren't the only people in France who got sick. While the peasants admittedly weren't eating tinsel -- their diet wasn't much more healthy. There are plenty in the South today who have gone right through this war on the same old fat salt pork and corn pone.

The Rotarians and other after dinner clubs devoted to the service of mankind (?) have been nervously informing us that the postwar prosperity will continue forever and ever, amen.

They know that if there weren't so many people who were cocksure of that, there would be more who would be doing something about it. That's what they don't want, as it might mean that a few more people would be getting small cuts out of the Rotarians' juicy roundsteaks.

Be sure of this: weare not prophets -- even if we have been babbling about rockets, robot control, and atom bombs for quite awhile. We don't know what post-war conditions are going to be like, and the worst of it is that we have been so carefully doped with optimism, and its natural counterpart, careless cynicism, that we don't seem to care. After all, we've got to remember that this is our world, and its going to be pretty much of what we make it, so the sooner we wake up the better.

The optimists can close their eyes, and the cynics can open theirs and put their hands a half inch in front of them -- and both can go on with their worthless mouthings. What really counts is what is done -- by you, or me, or any others of the thousands who are really interested. A lot depends on who's elected in the next Congressional race; whether there is a national minimum wage standard, and the guarantee of Full Employment; whether the Poll Tax goes out and the F.E.P.C. comes in. 

Let the balloon pants boys and the bright eyed thirteen year olds go ahead and dream of the brave new world of the (far distant) future, with its fleshy Vomaidens and plastic pylons on every corner. The jerks won't even get pork chops and a fifty-cents-a-night-hotel in the very near future unless a few million other people do a bit of fighting for it.

You say we've been fighting for a few years, and its almost over now? Oh year? If Standard Oil and IGFarbenindustrie were in partnership, and if Ford has plants in Cologne as well as Detroit -- then the fight's only half over. The VOLTBACHTER ZIETUNG may have been silenced but the Los Angeles Examiner, the New York Daily News, and the Chicago Tribune are going strong. 

But fans go on their way -- walking circles around the hole into which they've stuck their heads.

Snap out of it! We're in the show, and we have little reason to believe we'll buy tickets for another show when we leave, so we might just as well do out part. We have no guarantee of prosperity after this war, so we'd better stop taking it for granted. Unless we join those taking action here and now, whatever prosperity there may be is not very likely to be for us.

"Miniver sighed for what was not,
And dreamed, and rested from his labors;"

Saving...

As long as the world is based upon a system of profit for the few and corn husks for the many, that brave her world with all its Paulian pantaloons and Krupaish gadgets will amount to so much tinsel. And tinsel makes a rather indigestible diet! The French Court in the Eighteenth Century tried living off tinsel -- they sickened and died of it before the century was out. A lot of people are trying to live off the same diet today, and they're already complaining of bellyaches. But then plenty people today are complaining of bellyaches. The courtesans weren't the only people in France who got sick. While the peasants admittedly weren't eating tinsel -- their diet wasn't much more healthy. There are plenty in the South today who have gone right through this war on the same old fat salt pork and corn pone. The Rotarians and other after dinner clubs devoted to the service of mankind (?) have been nervously informing us that the postwar prosperity will continue forever and ever, amen. They know that if there weren't so many people who were cocksure of that, there would be more who would be doing something about it. That's what they don't want, as it might mean that a few more people would be getting small cuts out of the Rotarians' juicy roundsteaks. Be sure of this: weare not prophets -- even if we have been babbling about rockets, robot control, and atom bombs for quite awhile. We don't know what post-war conditions are going to be like, and the worst of it is that we have been so carefully doped with optimism, and its natural counterpart, careless cynicism, that we don't seem to care. After all, we've got to remember that this is our world, and its going to be pretty much of what we make it, so the sooner we wake up the better. The optimists can close their eyes, and the cynics can open theirs and put their hands a half inch in front of them -- and both can go on with their worthless mouthings. What really counts is what is done -- by you, or me, or any others of the thousands who are really interested. A lot depends on who's elected in the next Congressional race; whether there is a national minimum wage standard, and the guarantee of Full Employment; whether the Poll Tax goes out and the F.E.P.C. comes in. Let the balloon pants boys and the bright eyed thirteen year olds go ahead and dream of the brave new world of the (far distant) future, with its fleshy Vomaidens and plastic pylons on every corner. The jerks won't even get pork chops and a fifty-cents-a-night-hotel in the very near future unless a few million other people do a bit of fighting for it. You say we've been fighting for a few years, and its almost over now? Oh year? If Standard Oil and IGFarbenindustrie were in partnership, and if Ford has plants in Cologne as well as Detroit -- then the fight's only half over. The VOLTBACHTER ZIETUNG may have been silenced but the Los Angeles Examiner, the New York Daily News, and the Chicago Tribune are going strong. But fans go on their way -- walking circles around the hole into which they've stuck their heads. Snap out of it! We're in the show, and we have little reason to believe we'll buy tickets for another show when we leave, so we might just as well do out part. We have no guarantee of prosperity after this war, so we'd better stop taking it for granted. Unless we join those taking action here and now, whatever prosperity there may be is not very likely to be for us. "Miniver sighed for what was not, And dreamed, and rested from his labors;"