THE CITY -Konstantinos Kavafy
THE CITY
You said “ I’ll go to some other land, will cross another sea.
Another city will be found better than this.
Each of my efforts here a condemnation foretold
and, as if something dead, my heart lies buried.
How long can my mind dwell in this decay?
Wherever I will turn my eye, all that I see,
are only blackened ruins of my life here
that for so many years I’ve spent and wasted and destroyed ”.
You will not find another land, won’t find other seas.
The city will follow you. You’ll walk the same streets,
the same neighbourhoods will see you growing old
and in these same houses you’ll turn grey.
You’ll always arrive to this city. For somewhere else,
nurture no hope. There is no ship for you, there is no road.
The way you’ve ruined your life here, in this small
corner, you have ruined it everywhere.
TOM HIDDLESTON READING FUNERAL BLUES - STOP ALL THE CLOCKS by W. H. AUDEN
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
Europe will be democratised, once the oligarchy is overthrown!
Europe will be democratised, once the oligarchy is overthrown!
Europe is ruled by oligarchs. They own the apartments we live in, the banks that keep our money, the vaccines that save our lives, the apps we need to work, the data these apps collect about us, the oil and gas that heat up our planet – and, more importantly, they own the politicians that were supposed to defend us against them. They are the result of a terrible system in which the rich are allowed to do whatever they like, while common people pay for when “whatever they like” doesn’t work out.
They pretend to care about democracy, but behind the scenes they use all their power and influence to make sure you have no say in how they do things. The nightmare of all oligarchs is real democracy.
There is only one way to break with this: a democratic revolution!
We can defeat them, and we will not stop until our vision of a deep democracy spreads into the corporate system, our economy, our local councils, our parliaments and all our institutions.