witch hunt

The night is black, without a moon.
The air is thick and still.
The vigilantes gather on the lonely torchlit hill.

Features distorted in the flickering light,
Faces are twisted and grotesque.
Silent and stern in the sweltering night,
The mob moves like demons possessed.
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right,
Confident their ways are best.

The righteous rise with burning eyes of hatred and ill-will.
Madmen fed on fear and lies to beat and burn and kill.

They say there are strangers who threaten us --
Our immigrants and infidels.
They say there is strangeness to danger us
In our theatres and bookstore shelves,
That those who know what's best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves.

Quick to judge, quick to anger, slow to understand --
Ignorance and prejudice and fear walk hand in hand.

Neal Peart (Rush) 1981

vital signs

Unstable condition -- a symptom of life
in mental and environmental change.
Atmospheric disturbance -- the feverish flux
of human interface and interchange.
The impulse is pure -- sometimes our circuits get shorted
by external interference.
Signals get crossed and the balance distorted
by internal incoherence.

An ounce of perception, a pound of obscure --
process information at half speed.
Pause, rewind, replay -- warm memory chip --
random sample holds the one you need.
Leave out the fiction --
the fact is this friction will only be worn by persistence.
Leave out conditions --
courageous convictions will drag the dream into existence.

Everybody got mixed feelings about the function and the form.
Everybody got to elevate from the norm.

-- Neal Peart (Rush) 1981

deviate from the norm

"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
-- Mark Twain