1. |
The Great Regression
02:47
|
|||
|
History may look back at the period in which we are living and call it The Great Regression. We are seeing decades and sometimes centuries of progress reversed.
For the first time in history, The Supreme Court stripped away a right that had been granted to the people - the right of a woman to control her own body. Right-wing-driven regression has been going on for years.
Billionaires gained political clout when the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United that “money is speech.” This gave those with more money more influence in choosing our leaders.
They have used this power to increase the hold on the minority in America over the majority, reversing centuries of progress toward inclusion and fairness in American life.
|
||||
2. |
Living On Borrowed Time!
02:57
|
|||
|
We all have an expiration date. Life expectancy continues to decline in the U.S. as it rebounds in other countries. Living in America is worse for your health and makes you more likely to die younger than if you lived in another rich country like the U.K., Switzerland, Germany or Japan.
Life Expectancy of the World Population for males is 70.8 years. Hong Kong and Japan have the highest life expectancy for males at 82 years. The US is number 46 on the list, with a life expectancy for males at 76 years.
Why is life expectancy in the US falling? Covid-19 and drug overdoses are the biggest contributors and Americans eat more calories and lack universal access to health care.
We are all LIVING ON BORROWED TIME! We all have a limited amount of time on this planet and everything we do is powered by this fear. Let us be more conscious of how we use that time.
“Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.” – David Bowie
“Old age is a good and pleasant thing. It is true that you are gently escorted off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front seat as a spectator.” – Confucius
“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
|
||||
3. |
A Brave New World?
02:52
|
|||
|
Aldous Huxley warned us in 1931 of the dangers of mass media, passivity, and how even an intelligent population can be driven to gladly choose dictatorship over freedom.
BRAVE NEW WORLD envisions a nightmare society where everybody is perfectly happy all the time. The dictatorship is managed by ten oligarchs who rely on an extensive bureaucracy to keep the world running.
Global stability is ensured through the Fordist religion, which is based on the teachings of Henry Ford and Sigmund Freud and involves the worship of both men. The tenets of this faith encourage mass consumerism, sexual promiscuity, and avoiding unhappiness at all costs.
Huxley’s dystopia is especially terrifying in that the enslaved population absolutely loves their slavery. An individual’s identity is sacrificed for the well-being of the state, and science and technology control and subjugate its citizens. Sound familiar?
|
||||
4. |
A Modern Day Dystopia
02:41
|
|||
|
Dystopia is characterized by fear, distress, tyrannical governments, environmental disaster, and a cataclysmic decline in society. There is complete control over the people through the use of propaganda, censoring of information, denial of free thought, the complete loss of individuality, and enforcement of conformity.
This oligarchic tyranny assumes that capitalism is inherently unsustainable. This would precipitate a brutal counter-reaction, with capitalists preserving their power by discarding democracy and instituting a brutal repressive regime.
Robot dogs roam the streets beside police officers, a decentralized currency is revolutionizing the economy, jobs are being automated, and billionaires are commercializing space as Earth faces a record-breaking climate crisis.
American society is approaching a modern day dystopia.
|
||||
5. |
WE HEAR YOU
03:32
|
|||
|
We are in deep pain. The coronavirus pandemic, racial injustice, economic insecurity, political polarization, misinformation and general daily uncertainty dominate our lives. We are caring less about others and more about ourselves.
We are experiencing an empathy deficit. People everywhere lack the sense that others care. Empathy is our ability to share and understand each other's feelings.
Remind yourself that almost everyone is at the end of their rope these days. Many people barely have enough energy to handle their own problems, so they don’t have the ability to think about yours.
The modern world has made kindness harder. We need to practice “walking in their shoes.” WE HEAR YOU.
"Recognize that your struggle and your suffering is the same as everyone else’s, I think that’s the beginning of a responsible life. Otherwise, we are in a continual savage battle with each other with no possible solution, political, social, or spiritual." ~ Leonard Cohen
|
||||
6. |
GOING HOME
03:40
|
|||
|
“The ache for home lives in all of us. The place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” — Maya Angelou
"There is no place like home." — L. Frank Baum
"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home."
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
|
||||
7. |
The Poor Soul
02:44
|
|||
|
My parents were big fans of Jackie Gleason and I remember being 5 or 6 and watching The Poor Soul.
The Poor Soul was conceived as Jackie Gleason's tribute to the Silent Era of comedy and was always performed in pantomime. The Poor Soul was a completely hapless sort who never seemed to catch a break. However, that never stopped him from trying again... and again... and again.
He comes to tears in the least expected places like showing gratitude at being allowed to share a newspaper on the subway. No words. Just Jackie and the music. And I was touched.
“There is something which impels us to show our inner souls. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
~ Maya Angelou
“Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry . . . no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.”
~ Kurt Vonnegut
“Re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul.”
~ Walt Whitman
|
||||
8. |
Moving Backwards
02:40
|
|||
|
We are moving backwards. Racism is rising, intolerance is rising, hatred is rising, rejection of science is rising, rejection of objective truth is rising. Masses of people are embracing delusions as reality.
Maybe we need to go backwards before we can move forward?
"Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings...Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
- Soren Kierkegaard
|
||||
9. |
Soul Not Gold
03:17
|
|||
|
Just a friendly reminder to balance the material aspects of life with the development of our inner selves and the qualities that make us better human beings.
“Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold. Happiness dwells in the soul.”
- Democritus
“Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours.”
- Hermann Hesse
"You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul."
- George Bernard Shaw
“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.”
- Oscar Wilde
|
||||
10. |
America in Decline?
04:12
|
|||
|
For as long as I can remember, U.S. democracy, was held up as the gold standard of democracy worldwide.The United States was a relatively egalitarian, secure, middle-class democracy, with structures in place that supported the aspirations of ordinary people.
We are now obsessed with decline. Our parents had it better. Our influence overseas has waned. Our country is more divided than ever.
Real wages are falling. White-collar jobs are no longer secure. The nation’s infrastructure is collapsing. The healthcare system is deteriorating. The cities are unsafe. The schools are failing. The gap between rich and poor is widening.
Empires and great powers rise and fall. Nearly every American, whatever their political perspective, has a foreboding that the country they love is losing its way.
"Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future. . . .It gives us a very special, secret pleasure to see how unaware the people around us are of what is really happening to them." - Adolph Hitler
|
||||
11. |
Fueled By Lies
02:32
|
|||
|
Special counsel Jack Smith previewed an indictment against Donald Trump, saying the former president’s efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election were “fueled by lies.”
“The attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies — lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”
- Jack Smith
|
||||
12. |
The Long View
03:03
|
|||
|
When we seek the long view, we do not do so alone. We build on the minds and experiences of others — past and present. Through this cooperation, we can unlock insights that we cannot see, hear, or feel ourselves.
The coming years will mark a turning point in our evolution. On one path, we destroy our species because we failed to think long term; on the other, we flourish into a future extending millions of years hence.
We must transform our relationship with time — to close the gap between the experience of the present moment and the far brighter future that could lie ahead.
"If we are to have any hope for the future, those who have lanterns must pass them on to others."
- Plato
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."
- Albert Einstein
|
||||
Steve Shapiro Oakland, California
Steve Shapiro has composed music for hundreds of radio and TV commercials, documentary films, infomercials and other TV programs. He was the music director at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, which produced hundreds of award-winning educational films and recordings. He has a BA in Music from Brown University and an MA in Music from the Manhattan School of Music. ... more
If you like Steve Shapiro, you may also like:
orchestral suite no.1 new lanark [ALBUM]
by A Sea Warren
This debut classical piece from UK musician A Sea Warren captures the grandeur of the natural world in melodies that recall Aaron Copland.
go to album
Expansive orchestral music that has all the weight and heft of post-rock.
go to album
Scripted Orkestra (Conducted By Jules Buckley)
by Henrik Schwarz & Metropole Orkest
Celebrated electronic producer Henrik Schwarz teams with Metropole Orkest for music that blends dance rhythms with symphonic grandeur.
go to album
Always & Only the Lonely -- music from The Dorothy K
by Brian Lawlor and Zac Pennington
Soaring operatic pop written for the theater by Zac Pennington of Parenthetical Girls and composer Brian Lawlor.
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Aug 30, 2016
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Dec 3, 2013
go to album
Conversations in Ritual
by Balladeste
This new album from the contemporary classical duo was completely improvised.
go to album
