A Newspaper is...
A newspaper is a collection of half-injustices
Which, bawled by boys from mile to mile,
Spreads its curious opinion
To a million merciful and sneering men,
While families cuddle the joys of the fireside
When spurred by tale of dire lone agony.
A newspaper is a court
Where every one is kindly and unfairly tried
By a squalor of honest men.
A newspaper is a market
Where wisdom sells its freedom
And melons are crowned by the crowd.
A newspaper is a game
Where his error scores the player victory
While another's skill wins death.
A newspaper is a symbol;
It is feckless life's chronicle,
A collection of loud tales
Concentrating eternal stupidities,
That in remote ages lived unhaltered,
Roaming through a fenceless world.
7 comments:
Newspapers were doomed from the moment they were banned as fish-wrappers.
60 years ago a teacher made us all think about what recorded history on a daily basis. The answer was newspapers.
Nowadays, observing Heraclitus sage advice*, newspapers (and other media) have inverted their purpose and become what writes fiction on a daily basis.
*There is nothing permanent except change.
~ Heraclitus.
Encouraging another philosopher (can't find the quote) to propose that things gradually change into their opposite (money becomes credit cards etc.).
Dearieme. And budgies, linoleum and open fires went out of fashion. And Izal was superseded by superior bog-roll.
dearieme - they are still useful for cleaning the inside of a car windscreen though.
DJ - fiction sells and possibly always has. There may be no way round it.
Doonhamer - I've seen rolls of Izal in an antique shop. Linoleum on a bathroom floor in winter was not comforting to the feet.
God, yes, open fires. Sitting at one while sucking a clove and warming a scarf to apply to the cheek where the toothache was.
Made men of us though, eh?
Like warmed olive oil for earache. California Syrup of Figs for constipation. Cod liver oil for Vitamin D deficiency.
Come to think of it, that last one meant our parents' generation was more on the ball than the present public health bureaucracy.
My local rag, the Herts Advertiser, should be delivered free every Thursday. During the summer the deliveries stopped. I wrote to them to complain saying that it's crucial to be informed in these difficult times. The deliveries began again. I don't actually read it but it is very useful for lighting the fire.
dearieme - it bothers me that kids spend less time outside than we did and they are smeared with sunblock if the sun peeps out. Where their Vitamin D comes from I don't know, but I bet they don't get much from a takeaway diet.
Andy - we used to have an advertising paper and we kept every copy for various uses. Never read it though. Now we receive a glossy magazine which is no use at all.
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