![[Document]](document.jpg)
Exhuming McCarthy
To "exhume" is to dig
up the remains of the dead. Joseph McCarthy was a right wing
Senator who led anti-Communist witch hunts in the 1950s and who
wrongly accused many Americans of treason. [Ron Henry]
"Loyal to the Bank of America"
The Bank of America is a giant
banking corporation. [Ron
Henry]
"You're sharpening stones, walking
on coals"
Sharpening stones as in making
primitive spear heads. Walking on coals is a test of bravery.
[Ron Henry]
* I suspect that it is not likely that it was specifically Anthony Robbins [firewalking guru] that Michael
had in mind - because I don't think he was the big deal back
then and I'd be surprised if Michael had heard of him --
maybe though -- Robbins had his first book published in
86 -- Document was Sept 87 -- so I guess it's possible
Michael saw something on the TV or in the press about him. Even
so -- I'm wondering if maybe Robbins wasn't the first self
development guru to use the firewalking gimmick. [murray]
"To improve your business acumen"
"Acumen" is knowledge
and skill. [Ron Henry]
"Vested interest united ties, landed
gentry rationalize"
Vested interest as in owned share,
as in a company. The landed gentry is the land-owning upper class.
To rationalize is to invent seemingly plausible but false explanations
for one's culpable actions, esp. by finding a way to blame others.
[Ron Henry]
* In "Vested Interest, united ties", Stipe has pulled
off a very neat little double-entendre, invoking the vests and
ties of the clothing of businessmen. [billg3man]
"by jingo"
A colloquial interjection of agreement;
also, jingo is chauvanistic patriotism. [Ron Henry]
"Enemy sighted, enemy met"
Military jargon for attacking the
enemy. [Ron Henry]
"I'm addressing the realpolitik"
Realpolitik is "a usually
expansionist national policy having as its sole principle advancement
of the national interest." [American
Heritage Dictionary]
"Let us not.."
[The] spoken-word middle eight
[was] lifted from a McCarthy documentary the band watched during
the album's mixing stage. The film, Point of Order, takes as its climax a
key moment during the televised army-McCarthy hearings of 1954
(the Senator was engaged in trying to root out subversives in
the armed forces). On June 9th, McCarthy repeatedly tried to
ruin, by associating him with a left wing group, a young law
associate of the Army counsel Joseph N. Welch. The associate
was not involved in the hearings, and Welch replied to McCarthy's
irrelevant and spiteful harangues thus: 'Let us not assassinate
this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no
sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?'
[ICFTS]
"(Meet me at the book burning)"
Book burnings were political rallies
of the 1950-60s by conservatives to destroy books and records
that were considered either morally or politically dangerous.
[Ron Henry]