The bombs bursting in air...

Eliot Rosewater
Eliot Rosewater Posts: 2,659
edited July 2007 in A Moving Train
Talking with a great friend of mine today who said, "I thought it was interesting last night while I sat back and watched fireworks that we are perpetuating the feeling of patriotism through the symbolism of war. With 'Bombs bursting in air' we celebrate our country. It seems like a more peaceful sort of symbolism might be more appropriate."

I couldn't help but agree with him.

With that in mind, I think I'm going to add all fireworks to my list of boycotts.
Post edited by Unknown User on
«13

Comments

  • surferdude
    surferdude Posts: 2,057
    don't gimme no wrote:
    I thought it was interesting last night while I sat back and watched fireworks that we are perpetuating the feeling of patriotism through the symbolism of war. With “Bombs bursting in air” we celebrate our country. It seems like a more peaceful sort of symbolism might be more appropriate.

    With that in mind, I think I'm going to add all fireworks to my list of boycotts.
    They're just fireworks, get over it. They're not even an American invention. You should be glad that Ameica is secure enough/morally superior in itself that it can use technologies from other countries to help celebrate it's birthday.
    “One good thing about music,
    when it hits you, you feel to pain.
    So brutalize me with music.”
    ~ Bob Marley
  • DeetroitBaasketball
    DeetroitBaasketball Posts: 379
    I had a similar thought last night about fireworks sounding like bombs and war. I was saying it was like we were in some colonial war with all the fireworks going off in the distance.

    I don't think I'd ever boycott fireworks, they're too fun. And other than their sound, they aren't too violent.
  • even flow?
    even flow? Posts: 8,066
    don't gimme no wrote:
    I thought it was interesting last night while I sat back and watched fireworks that we are perpetuating the feeling of patriotism through the symbolism of war. With “Bombs bursting in air” we celebrate our country. It seems like a more peaceful sort of symbolism might be more appropriate.

    With that in mind, I think I'm going to add all fireworks to my list of boycotts.


    Was your flag still there?
    You've changed your place in this world!
  • surferdude
    surferdude Posts: 2,057
    don't gimme no wrote:
    IWith that in mind, I think I'm going to add all fireworks to my list of boycotts.
    And just so you're not a hypocrite you should be boycotting all combustion based forms of transportation and goods made or transported by such means. After all a combustion engine works by having fuel burst in explosion thus providing the power.
    “One good thing about music,
    when it hits you, you feel to pain.
    So brutalize me with music.”
    ~ Bob Marley
  • Abookamongstthemany
    Abookamongstthemany Posts: 8,209
    There could certainly be more peaceful ways, I'm sure! Tell that to my dork ass brothers who think it's hilariously enjoyable to shoot bottle rockets towards me and watch me run across the yard screaming. :p Beer and fireworks..what a nice little combination.
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • tybird
    tybird Posts: 17,388
    Abookamongstthemany wrote:
    There could certainly be more peaceful ways, I'm sure! Tell that to my dork ass brothers who think it's hilariously enjoyable to shoot bottle rockets towards me and watch me run across the yard screaming. :p Beer and fireworks..what a nice little combination.
    I bet that is some funny shit to watch.........from a safe distance. ;)
    All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
  • know1
    know1 Posts: 6,801
    don't gimme no wrote:
    I thought it was interesting last night while I sat back and watched fireworks that we are perpetuating the feeling of patriotism through the symbolism of war. With “Bombs bursting in air” we celebrate our country. It seems like a more peaceful sort of symbolism might be more appropriate.

    With that in mind, I think I'm going to add all fireworks to my list of boycotts.

    I watched them and, while I guess they are supposed to have something to do with bombs, they didn't seem to hold that symbolism at all for me or anyone else at my party. We just thought they were pretty and cool.
    The only people we should try to get even with...
    ...are those who've helped us.

    Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
  • Abookamongstthemany
    Abookamongstthemany Posts: 8,209
    tybird wrote:
    I bet that is some funny shit to watch.........from a safe distance. ;)

    It was even funny to me at the time...after I was finished hiding behind various trees in the yard, I was giggling my ass off. :p But this morning I was thinking...seriously WTF! :D
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • even flow?
    even flow? Posts: 8,066
    Abookamongstthemany wrote:
    There could certainly be more peaceful ways, I'm sure! Tell that to my dork ass brothers who think it's hilariously enjoyable to shoot bottle rockets towards me and watch me run across the yard screaming. :p Beer and fireworks..what a nice little combination.


    Any home video of your bros firing them out their asses? ala - jackass ;)
    You've changed your place in this world!
  • Solat13
    Solat13 Posts: 6,996
    The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

    Written by John Adams on July 3rd, 1776.

    He thought that the 2nd would be the actual holiday when the Continental Congress voted a separation from England. The Declaration of Independence was not signed until the 4th.

    I think the idea of fireworks comes from his idea of illuminating the sky from one end of the continent to the other more than the whole bombs bursting in air, but hey that's just me. I mean the idea of bombs bursting in air didn't come about about until Francis Scott Key a generation later.
    - Busted down the pretext
    - 8/28/98
    - 9/2/00
    - 4/28/03, 5/3/03, 7/3/03, 7/5/03, 7/6/03, 7/9/03, 7/11/03, 7/12/03, 7/14/03
    - 9/28/04, 9/29/04, 10/1/04, 10/2/04
    - 9/11/05, 9/12/05, 9/13/05, 9/30/05, 10/1/05, 10/3/05
    - 5/12/06, 5/13/06, 5/27/06, 5/28/06, 5/30/06, 6/1/06, 6/3/06, 6/23/06, 7/22/06, 7/23/06, 12/2/06, 12/9/06
    - 8/2/07, 8/5/07
    - 6/19/08, 6/20/08, 6/22/08, 6/24/08, 6/25/08, 6/27/08, 6/28/08, 6/30/08, 7/1/08
    - 8/23/09, 8/24/09, 9/21/09, 9/22/09, 10/27/09, 10/28/09, 10/30/09, 10/31/09
    - 5/15/10, 5/17/10, 5/18/10, 5/20/10, 5/21/10, 10/23/10, 10/24/10
    - 9/11/11, 9/12/11
    - 10/18/13, 10/21/13, 10/22/13, 11/30/13, 12/4/13
  • Abookamongstthemany
    Abookamongstthemany Posts: 8,209
    even flow? wrote:
    Any home video of your bros firing them out their asses? ala - jackass ;)

    You know...I wouldn't put that past them but no, no videos. :D
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • Cosmo
    Cosmo Posts: 12,225
    I wonder if the Iraqis ran outside, looked in the sky and said, "Oooooohhhh!!! Aaaaaaahhhh!!!" during 'Shock and Awe'. And I wonder if their future 'Independence Day' celebrations will be marked with fireworks to remind them.
    ...
    My guess... not. They will probably go with the obligitory firing of automatic weapons into the air... you know... like at weddings.
    Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
    Hail, Hail!!!
  • Ahnimus
    Ahnimus Posts: 10,560
    Fireworks bore me.
    I necessarily have the passion for writing this, and you have the passion for condemning me; both of us are equally fools, equally the toys of destiny. Your nature is to do harm, mine is to love truth, and to make it public in spite of you. - Voltaire
  • bootlegger10
    bootlegger10 Posts: 16,263
    don't gimme no wrote:
    I thought it was interesting last night while I sat back and watched fireworks that we are perpetuating the feeling of patriotism through the symbolism of war. With “Bombs bursting in air” we celebrate our country. It seems like a more peaceful sort of symbolism might be more appropriate.

    With that in mind, I think I'm going to add all fireworks to my list of boycotts.

    I think part of the 4th of July holiday is remembering the sacrifice that was made by the Continental Army. The Revolutionary War will always be a part of our history. People thought freedom was something worth fighting for, and they went out and got it. We shouldn't neglect that act and forget it ever happened, we should be proud of what they did. Besides, who wants to sing a song about peace? Oh yeah.....HIIIIPPPPPPIIIIEEESSSS. Ha, just kidding.

    If our country was freed by sitting at a table and working things out with the British, then we should sing a song about compromise. That was not the case. We fought for it (rather the colonists fought for it).
  • Ahnimus
    Ahnimus Posts: 10,560
    Democracy delivered by the bomb and the gun is terror else where in the world I'm from.
    I necessarily have the passion for writing this, and you have the passion for condemning me; both of us are equally fools, equally the toys of destiny. Your nature is to do harm, mine is to love truth, and to make it public in spite of you. - Voltaire
  • Abookamongstthemany
    Abookamongstthemany Posts: 8,209
    Ahnimus wrote:
    Democracy delivered by the bomb and the gun is terror else where in the world I'm from.


    But that's just different. We're the good guys!
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • Ahnimus
    Ahnimus Posts: 10,560
    Abookamongstthemany wrote:
    But that's just different. We're the good guys!

    "Dancing in the moonlight" I remember that line from a song. I can't think of what it is though.
    I necessarily have the passion for writing this, and you have the passion for condemning me; both of us are equally fools, equally the toys of destiny. Your nature is to do harm, mine is to love truth, and to make it public in spite of you. - Voltaire
  • Abookamongstthemany
    Abookamongstthemany Posts: 8,209
    Ahnimus wrote:
    "Dancing in the moonlight" I remember that line from a song. I can't think of what it is though.

    :)

    Dancing in the Moonlight ~ Smashing Pumpkins

    When I passed you in the doorway
    You took me with a glance
    Should have took that last bus home
    But I asked you for a dance
    Now we were steady to the pictures
    I always get chocolate stains on my pants
    Father says "he's going crazy"
    Says I'm livin' in a trance,

    Dancing in the moonlight
    It's caught me in it's spotlight,
    It's alright, it's alright, the moonlight
    This long, hot summer night

    It's three o'clock in the morning, I'm on the streets again
    Disobeyed another warning, Shoulda been home by ten
    Now I stay out 'till Sunday, I have to say I stayed with friends
    It's a habit worth forming, It's a means to justify the end

    Dancing in the moonlight
    It's caught me in it's spotlight,
    It's alright, it's alright, the moonlight
    This long, hot summer night

    I'm walking home
    Last bus is long gone
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde
  • Ahnimus
    Ahnimus Posts: 10,560
    I was thinking of the King Harvest version (the Original)

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=FU2t57w6UmA
    I necessarily have the passion for writing this, and you have the passion for condemning me; both of us are equally fools, equally the toys of destiny. Your nature is to do harm, mine is to love truth, and to make it public in spite of you. - Voltaire
  • Abookamongstthemany
    Abookamongstthemany Posts: 8,209
    Ahnimus wrote:
    I was thinking of the King Harvest version (the Original)

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=FU2t57w6UmA

    Yeah, I knew it was a cover but forgot who did it. I'll always remember it by the Pumpkins version. :)

    edit: well no, the song you posted is completely different but I'm still pretty sure the Pumpkins covered their version.
    If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    -Oscar Wilde

Categories