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Tom London

@TomLondon6

30 Jan

“The executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie”- Marx & Engels, Communist Manifesto, 1848
Discuss.

“All that is solid melts into the air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face, with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind” - Marx & Engels, Communist Manifesto, 1848

“Modern bourgeois society...that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like a sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells”
- Marx & Engels, Communist Manifesto, 1848

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Tom London

@TomLondon6

15 Jan

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”
- William Blake

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way."
- William Blake

“The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.”
- William Blake

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Tom London

@TomLondon6

14 Jan

Here is William Blake, 200 years ago, prophetically describing the cruel manner in which Tories in 2021 advise Tories to treat the poor

'Compel the poor to live upon a crust of bread, by soft mild arts.
Smile when they frown, frown when they smile; and when a man looks pale
1/?

With labour and abstinence, say he looks healthy and happy;
And when his children sicken, let them die; there are enough
Born, even too many, and our earth will be overrun
Without these arts. If you would make the poor live with temper,
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With pomp give every crust of bread you give; with gracious cunning
Magnify small gifts; reduce the man to want a gift, and then give with pomp.
Say he smiles if you hear him sigh. If pale, say he is ruddy.
Preach temperance: say he is overgorg'd and drowns his wit
3/4

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Tom London

@TomLondon6

14 Jan

I Was In A Hurry
BY DUNYA MIKHAIL

Yesterday I lost a country.
I was in a hurry,
and didn't notice when it fell from me
like a broken branch from a forgetful tree.
Please, if anyone passes by
and stumbles across it,
perhaps in a suitcase
open to the sky,
or engraved on a rock
1/?

like a gaping wound,
or wrapped
in the blankets of emigrants,
or canceled
like a losing lottery ticket,
or helplessly forgotten
in Purgatory,
or rushing forward without a goal
like the questions of children,
or rising with the smoke of war,
or rolling in a helmet on the sand,
2/?

or stolen in Ali Baba's jar,
or disguised in the uniform of a policeman
who stirred up the prisoners
and fled,
or squatting in the mind of a woman
who tries to smile,
or scattered
like the dreams
of new immigrants in America.
If anyone stumbles across it,
3/4

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Tom London

@TomLondon6

12 Jan

A book has arrived in the post (NOT from Amazon)
Michael Parenti, "Dirty Truths"

"I call these writings Dirty Truths because they deal with the kind of undiluted information and ideas largely excluded from our corporate-dominated media, schools and mainstream politics...

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, views that are studiously ignored or strenuously denounced, so much so as to take on the appearance of something improper. They are not merely dissident but "dirty" as it were, lacking the unexamined repetition and aura of respectability that are bestowed upon more

2/3

conventional opinions

[Truths are better than lies]

[This will], I hope, prove a refreshing departure from the predominating ideological pap that is fed to us time & again about such things as poverty & wealth, fascism & free markets, media & culture, consciousness & class

3/3

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Tom London

@TomLondon6

12 Jan

One of the best memoirs of the 20th century may be The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig

In 1914, Zweig was on holiday in Belgium. The mood was "carefree". Many nationalities were enjoying the seaside, including many Germans. Newspaper boys bawled out menacing headlines but
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people thought these things are always satisfactorily settled at the last moment - so, why not this time too?

The kites rose in the air, seagulls flew overhead, and the sun shone on the peaceful scene, bright and warm

2/?

Suddenly there were Belgian soldiers around the place, a sight never usually seen on the beach. ...machine guns were transported on little carts with dogs harnessed to them.

Someone said, "Precautions have to be taken"

"Nonsense!" I replied with genuine conviction..

3/?

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