There is plenty of room for cultural diversity in the world, but not within a single country. A Tower of Babel has no culture. A person cannot be a Christian one day, a pagan the next and a Muslim the day after. A hodgepodge of cultural and religious values provides no basis for law—except the raw power of the pre-Christian past." -PCR

Ditto of the entire article above. If Bob Dylan's journey as an artist is in microcosm that of the nation in its recent 50 year past, perhaps we're coming full circle to recognize the above. I just saw the new film about this circle of Dylan's including his conversion to Christianity along the way entitled "I'm Not There". Which means not in or endorsing the paces the country was either putting itself through or being put through rather just an individual experiencing it all.

But along the way he did come up with some poignant lyrics to characterize and make fun of the state of the nation. For example: "And the National Bank at a profit sells roadmaps for the soul to the old folks home at the college."

Perhaps the funniest segment of his trip was when the organized Left attempted to make him as he put it 'their pet monkey' and at the awards dinner honoring him he more or less rejected them all during his diatribe from the podium. Later when asked by the press what it 'meant' he said he wasn't going to do their "finger pointing songs - he only had 10 fingers."

I remember college and frankly speaking being trained at the time to already be an 'old' person, and/or a trained monkey respectful of raw power. I just wish they did have an old folks home for us students there at the time. I would have checked into it I was so disheartened. Later Dylan would put it that 'he ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.'

Sad and strange times especially these past decades have been, no?