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Post by maddogfagin on Jul 18, 2014 15:00:35 GMT
This was spotted on Facebook and forwarded on:
Patrick Robert Easter
If the greatest poet of the early 20th c. is T.S. Eliot, surely the latter poet is Ian Anderson. He concludes his Artist's Manifesto (“Wind Up,” ca. 1970),
And in your pomp and all your glory, You're a poorer man than me, As you lick the boots of death, Born out of fear.
While the rest of the song – and album – addresses the stifling power of "church" and society on the soul, this one stanza shows where that power rests. Though it be largely overlooked outside of the ancient, Eastern, theology, Anderson shows “the fear of death” as the source for the sin, strife, and restriction. To whatever degree he, himself, has since freed himself from the despair of this world, he clearly identifies the “God” of this world as, “your half-assed smiles, and your book of rules,” and fear of death (loss, helplessness, invalidation) as its only power. For all the despair in many of the other songs, God shows once again that He, reveals truth to “babes,” which the “wise and prudent” find out of their reach. Lord Jesus, have mercy on us all!
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Post by Budding Stately Hero on Feb 7, 2018 16:50:05 GMT
I loved this post and am surprised that it didn't grow wings. Everyone on this discussion group seems to do his/her best to avoid the trappings of such discussions as organized religion and politics. That's a good thing, in some ways. But, this is still a fabulous post.
That being said, I must post a reply.
I was taught by my Grandmom that the "church" is people (in the same way that Soylent Green is people....some nutrients, some waste, some filler, and utterly polluted). Ian was nothing short of brilliant when he wrote the "locked Him in His golden cage, made Him bend to your religion" lyric. My Grandmom taught me not to listen to "man. But, to listen only to God. She told me to listen for God's voice in everything I do. That's often hard to adhere to in our modern culture, or ever. But, her words come back to me, as I moved through time and raise a child.
If mankind has a hand in it, rest assured, there's a dilution into very simplistic terms of what God really is and what man says He is.
Awesome post, sir.
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