The Golden Era Revisited...The Thing They Got 'Right'?

IronFistIn
ThinkTagRagsVille


Awhile ago, Bigger E. and I reworked an old Phil Ochs song that he, himself, fiddled with to come up with the folk anthem 'Here's To The State Of Richard Nixon' 40 years ago.

While it' no great shakes, Alabama or otherwise, I like to think that our version is true to the sentiment of the original with, of course, a Lotulandian focus.

It's called 'Here's To The State Of The Golden Era', and it is filled with a whole lot of the things we reckon the purveyors of the decade-long experiment in economic extremism got completely 'wrong'.

You know....

Things like souls in the bag, raped rivers, privatized railways, raw logs shipped to nowhere, henchmen, spinners, forever shuffled seniors, forever suffering children, moneychangers, clowns, liars and, finally, a charlattan brought in at the very end in a brazen attempt to save and, especially, preserve everything the experiment hath wrought.

****

But here's the thing I hadn't really considered when I re-wrote the lyrics to the kind of tune that Bob Dylan once sneeringly called melodified 'journalism'.

Which is that everything the purveyors of the Golden Era got 'wrong' for the average British Columbian is also everything the purveyors got 'right' for their true benefactors (see, for example, the cronies and henchmen mentioned above).

This is something that Norm Farrell has been making clear in a devastating series of posts recently, which he sums up thusly:

Many commentators claim BC Liberals are incompetent and ineffective. While true in ministries such as Justice and Children and Family Development, Liberals have been successful in the centerpiece of their strategic plan. Startlingly successful.

In 2001, Gordon Campbell's platform document promised a "business environment that is second to none" and BC Liberals have consistently delivered on that objective, most particularly for the large multi-nationals and outsourcers....

And, of course, Norm is right.

And as we, and others, have pointed out, repeatedly, despite this unprecedented give away of wealth and treasure to the benefactors of the Era, nothing (and we really do mean NOTHING) is better economically in British Columbia. In fact, now that the debts are starting to come due it is becoming increasingly clear that things will very likely get much worse for we who will be forced to pay the massive bill (see BC Hydro and its commitments, in the tens of billions, to the cronies' and henchmans' gargantuan IPP guarantees, for example).

So...

If you would like to hear our original version of our version of Phil Ochs tune (which we are still working on), just hit the little triangle below...

_______
Want to hear the 'Golden Era' tune for real (ie. done by actual humans) and more?...Well...In the spirit of the original 'Three Buskateers' we're having a little show Thursday evening Jan 3rd (indoors!)...It will be free, with donations to go to the best little cause that both Norm Farrell and I know of....The Kids of Angelitos Felices....Show details to follow....Or send me an Email at: pacificgazette at yahoo dot (the two letter suffix for) canada...

.