When fire hits gas,
There’s flame.
When the people meet the machine,
There’s change.
Let me explain:
How Gutenberg caused a change,
By inventing the printing press,
The technology, the right machine,
That Luther’s writings were printed on,
So literate people read them,
And bang, the match had hit the gas,
And there was the flame signifying major change.
Like it or not, when mankind meets a new machine at the right time,
Change is coming.
It may be good, it may be bad, but change, ineluctable and inevitable, is on the way.
Slavery was dying out in the Southern U.S.A.,
Until Whitney invented the Cotton Gin,
Cheap labor was needed to grow the new cotton now made available by the Gin.
Profit through slavery changed the land,
Man met the machine,
And there was change:
Slavery expanded to grow the cotton and spread widely,
The match hit the fire and there was flame,
The War Between The States was on the way.
Now there came a change that literally flamed,
As did Luther’s when the wars over religion came.
In our day a match has hit the gas to make it flame,
Make way for CHANGE. ( Neurotics, watch your nerves, for change is coming.)
The machine is the new forms in Communications Technology have met the people.
It is only a matter of time until the people realize that.
The emotional impact as well as intellectual realization,,
Of what is changing through technology hits homes.
No more a formal minuet of time and place to cast a ballot,
But Mom and Dad can just pick up a telephone in the kitchen,
Or the family go to the computer and internet their wishes on specific issues.
In hours the will of the people may be known.
The change seems nothing short of miraculous.
And means some definite changes in ways and methods of democracy in our time.
There are a lot of possibilities, some odd, some not, some helpful, some harmful,
And many changes not discovered yet nor even thought of.
But like or dislike change, it doesn’t really matter,
The match has hit the gas,
The flame that comes from change,
Mankind meeting the machine,
If not here quite yet,
Yes, it is coming, yes, some happy changes may be on the way.
And may direct voting by the people on big financial issues,
Be one of them. (And maybe more big issues to follow.)
We can all sleep better and sounder if it is.