BS: Have the times a'changed that much?

Subject: RE: BS: Have the times a'chaged that much?
From: Greg F.
Date: 05 Jul 17 - 06:05 PM

Since that song was written we've ended segregation in the US

Uh, not quite, Steve.

But things sure have changed. A President Drumph would have been inconceivable in 1965.

Or, as Tom Paxton put it in an interview in March of this year:

"I guess I'll be writing a little more politically now with this asshole in the White House."

"It's not the last year that worries me, it's the next four … It's really hard to overstate how bad I think this man Trump is. I mean I thought Nixon was bad but he was nothing, nothing, compared to this man … [Trump] has no shame and every word out of the man's mouth is a lie. It's just the way it is."

Subject: RE: BS: Have the times a'chaged that much?
From: Senoufou
Date: 05 Jul 17 - 05:44 PM

Did he really sing 'prophesise'? Surely it's 'prophesy'?

I always felt the song was defiant and dismissive, a sort of thumbing the nose at the establishment, without suggesting anything constructive. A bit 'teenagery' in fact.

I'm sure we have indeed come a long way since those days. Women's liberation and feminism, acceptance and decriminalisation of homosexuality, contraception, reduction of racism for example.
As Steve says, there are other things to address, but there always will be.

Subject: RE: BS: Have the times a'chaged that much?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Jul 17 - 05:33 PM

I always thought the song was way too divisive. There are decent people in every generation and there are arseholes in every generation. Since that song was written we've ended segregation in the US, gone a long way towards enlightenment when it comes to homosexuality and abortion, expanded education, drastically reduced the numbers of people living under dictatorships (no thanks to US foreign policy), got rid of the Berlin Wall and had the liberating phenomenon of punk. There's a long way to go. I won't bother listing the downsides. I don't really think Dylan changed anything, whatever his fans think.

Subject: RE: BS: Have the times a'chaged that much?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Jul 17 - 05:07 PM

..or even 'a-changed'

(Mods, please? :-) )

Subject: BS: Have the times a-chaged that much?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Jul 17 - 05:06 PM

I was amazed to discover that Dylan's 'Times they are a-changin' is 53 years old! A lot of water under the bridge. Things have obviously progressed a lot since the early sixties. Medical and scientific advances have made our lives longer and easier but we are still wasting the planets resources. We have the sum of the worlds knowledge literally in the palm of our hands every time we use our mobiles to go on the internet. But what do we do with it? Look at pictures of kittens being cute. And bearing in mind the song had a primarily political message have we really progressed there?

I presume that Donald Trump and Theresa May were young when the song came out. Did it have no effect on them? Have they become the ones that stand in the doorway and block up the halls? I don't think that battle outside has really shaken their windows and rattled their walls. Did Bob have any effect on today's politics? Would it have been worse without him? Or better?

Just thinking aloud...

DtG