{"id":1061,"date":"2008-04-30T09:59:07","date_gmt":"2008-04-30T09:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/?p=1061"},"modified":"2008-04-30T09:59:07","modified_gmt":"2008-04-30T09:59:07","slug":"you-can-tell-its-broken-when","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/?p=1061","title":{"rendered":"You can tell it’s broken when…"},"content":{"rendered":"

… the greed of a few bankers costs you your house<\/a><\/p>\n

… people scuffle over bags of rice in Walmart stores<\/a><\/p>\n

… and it gets mapped on GoogleEarth<\/a><\/p>\n

… BP announce 48% increases in profits, as petrol hits \u00a31.10 a litre<\/a><\/p>\n

… anyone is surprised that the rich get richer<\/a><\/p>\n

… billions are found for destruction<\/a>, at the sufferance<\/a> of creation<\/a> and discovery<\/a><\/p>\n

I could go on. I’m sure you could too.<\/p>\n

My cynicism today is dragging me down. It is a good excuse to return to Ivor Cutler, to whom I referred recently. Here are his words, a small poem perhaps, with which I empathise closely at the moment, entitled ‘A Real Man’.<\/p>\n

When I was 12 I wanted to be a real man \u2014 an old man with a beard, sitting at a table with a huge book full of wisdom. And what did society hold up to me for my admiration? A golfer, a boxer, a man who ran quickly; a soldier, a lawyer, a tycoon; a motorist, a pop star; a footballer. Into what kind of madhouse had I been born?<\/strong><\/p>\n

And what have I become? A child, witlessly pouring out whatever enters my head. I am a madman and people gather to listen to me make a fool of myself. I am not a role model. This is my protection and security. I still long for the table and the book, the smell of an old man and an old book; the afternoon light fading.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… the greed of a few bankers costs you your house … people scuffle over bags of rice in Walmart stores … and it gets mapped on GoogleEarth … BP announce 48% increases in profits, as petrol hits \u00a31.10 a litre … anyone is surprised that the rich get richer … billions are found for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,16,35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}