Mayday

* Soyez réalistes, demandez l'impossible.“

Indeed, Steve. However, those who held the power always told those who didn't have any power that the things which would help us change the world are impossible, and thus nothing has ever changed. To which the powerful can argue QED. Maybe we should stop "asking".

"Ask for work. If they don't give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread.”

My father-in-law, who, as a young man, had lived through the Great Depression hitching rides on freight trains along with the hobos and trying to find work wherever he could, once told me he figured out early on there are three ways to get bread: "Whenever I could, I worked for food; if there was no work, I asked for food; if no one would give me any, I took it". He was the most honest, upright person I have met and I think his point could not be clearer. If by asking (for basic, decent rights) you are not given, then you will just take.

Thanks, Annalia. Your father-in-law had worked out a simple truth. The quotation as I have written it is believed to be by Emma Goldman in a book from 1910. Why, then, do we, over 100 years later, still need to fight for such things? I think someone, somewhere, is conspiring against us and we, in our benign ignorance, are allowing them to do so and even occasionally applauding them for it.

I think the someone somewhere is the ugly half of human nature, the part that gets some of my countrymen (and women) to close off our ports to the migrants rescued at sea because they are not "our people", the part that puts profit well above fairness in most of the so called developed world, the part that rapes and plunders the natural world and pretends there will be no price to pay for it, even in the face of evidence. I see no way to curb this ugly, dark half of our nature other than to continue to try and educate ourselves, to not give up "the fight". :)

Une affiche qui date de 1968. Un document d'une autre époque. Aujourd'hui, ce serait plutôt "Le confinement continu".

I did not know the period. The extra detail is interesting.

Well noted, Jean-luc. And confinement may be just as hard a struggle, too.

Les événements may be long in our past, but many of the reasons behind them should not be forgotten or dismissed as outdated.

Je n'ai jamais dit que cette époque était dépassée; Pour comprendre les enjeux contemporain, il faut maîtriser son Histoire.

Of course. I apologise if my response seemed critical. I did not intend to imply that you felt the events of the past were outdated. I agree, we must master our history ... but we also have to be aware of who writes that history and the biases that they inevitably introduce to it. Have a good weekend, Jean-luc and keep safe.

For all of us working people!

Excellent image! Stay well!

Admired in:
www.ipernity.com/group/tolerance

Belated happy May day to you, Old Owl!