We Won't Get Fooled Again

It's not entirely certain when exactly all of humanity began to wait for 20th January, 2009. The reasons for this hardly need enumerating. They are plentiful and obvious. The horrors of the Bush presidency are well documented and by all accounts are a time to be forgotten, both for America and the rest of the world. Barack Obama enters office with higher expectations than possibly anyone in history.

The witching hour is nigh and the last thing I want to do is bring everyone back to earth with some good old fashioned cynicism. The past eight years though, unfortunately, caution all of us against too much hope or expectation. While the world's wishes are with them, let Obama and his team know we will not again be let down in the manner we were. However unreasonable the expectations, we will not stand for failure and futility. The world cannot afford it. The world needs change, it can't have more of the same. The lyrics of a very powerful song say all I want to say. We won't get fooled again.

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they were all flown in the last war

There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

As Jim Morrison once said, "We want the world and we want it now". Unreasonable, I know, but nothing short of this will do.

Let us not be saying in a few months time :

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss