The purity that is the happiness of a child

An Unforgettable Memory,

Among the most vivid memories I have of my childhood were those times my father would pick me up, sit me on his knees and give me the ride of my life. As the fun started he would utter:

"au pas, au pas au pas
Au Trot, Au Trot, Au Trot
AU GALOP, AU GALOP, AU GALOP"

As I bounced up and down I became overwhelmed with joy. Uncontrollable laughter would come pouring out of me and for those brief moments I was the happiest kid in the world.

I guess that's all over for me. I sure hope my future kids will appreciate a bruised bottom as much as I did.

You and the Atomic Bomb

Here is a particularly brilliant, and yet obvious, extract from G. Orwell's essay You and the Atomic bomb:

"...I think the following rule would be found generally true: that ages in which the dominant weapon is expensive or difficult to make will tend to be ages of despotism, whereas when the dominant weapon is cheap and simple, the common people have a chance. Thus, for example, tanks, battleships and bombing planes are inherently tyrannical weapons, while rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons."

The subject matter of this essay was, as you might have guessed or already known, a prediction of what was going to happen in the post second world war period. Orwell concluded that we might find ourselves back in the Stone Age but that it was more probable that we would see the emergence of a world governed by a select few nations who lived in a state of "peace that is no peace".

What’s shocking is how accurate of a predication that was. But does this mean we live and will continue to live in a "horribly stable" world where the individual is left powerless? Maybe a fresh start back from zero would have been a better fate for mankind.

Then again, we have a history of not learning from our mistakes...