This is a great piece of screwball, socialist science-freakiness.
Iraq is the
Ottoman backwater
formerly known as Mesopotamia,
the southern component of which
was the kingdom of Sumeria,
with its Ziggurats (remember? from junior high?) and the Royal Tombs of Ur.
The 'wise and merciful' Hammurabi was king up north in Babylon - where
Baghdad is today. That a king like Hammurabi could be singled out
for his progressiveness simply points up the fact that 2000 b.c.
was measurable nearer than we are to the stone age. For most offenses,
his laws were simple enough - pick-pocketing: death, poor
crafstmanship: death, deceiving a barber: death. Only a
few punishments exhibited anything more subtle than this.
Though they lived in harsh times, so the rationale goes,
at least the Sumerians knew where they stood, whereas the Babylonians,
Assyrians, et al. still suffered the vicissitudes of life
without any consistent laws.
'Proletarian' derives from a Latin word, and basically means
one 'viewed as contributing to the state only through having
children'. Fantastic. Lest we forget what a bloody idiot's
playground were the great socialist states of the 20th century,
I think that definition should remind us well. I
am reminded of it every day by the Section 8 slums next door -
the parking lot full on a weekday, screaming, hitting, and new
babies every spring - all on my tax dime. Fantastic.
This is the 11th song for Right Wing Fiend. I named it
so because I was after the Greek Chorus, 1st person plural
kind of chant vibe. The tune is 4 chords: B minor, F# minor
over A, G major, F# major. It repeats onstinato, a la
Pachelbel's canon, but with weird organs,
ouds,
and duduks. Here's the lyric:
Sumerian Proletarian
we are the gods
people are the gods
we are the people
so we are the gods
never eat the yak
the yak is our brother
never eat your brother
never eat the yak
never beat the camel
the camel is our sister
never beat your sister
never beat the camel
we are the gods
people are the gods
we are the people
so we are the gods
