Ladies and Gentlemen, your reading assignment for the eveing...

[Rosco T.]

"REPENT, HARLEQUIN!" SAID THE TICKTOCKMAN

by Harlan Ellison
(Nebula Award, Best Short Story 1965)

There are always those who ask, what is it all about? For those
who need to ask, for those who need points sharply made, who
need to know "where it's at," this:

"The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly,
but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army,
and the militia, jailors, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most
cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of
the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood
and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be
manufactured that will serve the purposes as well. Such
command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt.
They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet
such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens.
Others as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and
office-holders serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as
they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to
serve the Devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as
heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men,
serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily
resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as
enemies by it."

Henry David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience"


----------------

go track it down (Google is your friend), it's worth a read, 'specially now...

[JitterbugPerfume]

1. thank you

that is beautiful and Harlan Ellison is just the best

[bryant69]

2. Great story

Great title too.

But wel worth checking out for those who haven't read it.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[texpatriot2004]

3. Awesome. Thanks for this Thoreau post. The last part about

heroes, patriots and martyrs being treated as enemies is so true.