Thanks to Apollon Zamp for the idea for this graphic.
The United Notions is the successor to the —
League of Notions
I’m here sitting in the wreck of Europe
With a map of Europe
Spread out in a hall of Versailles
And every single nationality and principality
have come for a piece of the pie
I’m sitting in the wreck of Europe
With a map of Europe
And the lines and the borders are gone
We’ve got to do this jigsaw puzzle
It’s an awful muddle
But somehow we’ve got to go on
Lawrence of Arabia is waiting in the wings
He’s got some Arab sheikhs and kings
And we’re in debt to them somehow
Lawrence of Arabia has got this perfect vision
Gonna sell him down the river
There’s no time for him now
I think I’m gonna take a piece of Russia
And a Piece of Germany
And give them to Poland again
I’ll put together Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia
And hope that is how they’ll remain
Then I’ll take a bit of Turkey
Then a lot of Turkey
This is all quite a heady affair
There’s Persia and Iraq to pick up
And there’s Churchill’s hiccup
And we can’t leave it up in the air
Woodrow Wilson waves his fourteen points around
And says “The time to act is now
Won’t get this opportunity again”
Woodrow Wilson has his fourteen points
But Clemenceau turns to Lloyd George
And says “You know that
God himself had only ten”
Today I’m carried by a league of notions
(It’s a league of notions)
By a league of notions
I don’t think I quite understand
(I don’t think I understand)
I only know from this commotion
(From this commotion)
There’s a chance that we could turn
The world in the palm of our hands
(We can turn the world in the palm of our hands)
Voices in the corridors of power
Candles burning hour by hour
Still you know that to the victors go the spoils
Such a great responsibility to make it fair
And there must be some reparations now
And don’t forget the oil
Today I’m carried by a league of notions
(It’s a league of notions)
By a league of notions
I don’t think I quite understand
(I don’t think I understand)
I only know from this commotion
(From this commotion)
There’s a chance that we could turn
The world in the palm of our hands
(We can turn the world in the palm of our hands)
Pax vobiscum
Wo-Oh, Pax vobiscum— Al Stewart, from Between the Wars
5 comments:
This just proves why it's important to learn curse words in other languages -- because that's what popping up in the same thought bubbles.
Good image, good reminder. Thanks.
Sorry I had always thought Poland existed long before Germany or Prussia and perhaps even before the Kiev Rus.........it is after all one of the oldest nation states in Europe..........
It did. Notice it said "Give them to Poland *again*." It's just a sad fact of recent European history that Poland ends up getting annexed by some hostile power or another every time. (Though not due to any lack of gallantry on the part of its people.)
I hate to be cliche in saying that picture is worth a thousand words, but it is. A thousand volumes maybe, who knows. Either way, it's brilliant. And sad. And true.
I visited the UN today. To make up for my feelings of irritation upon discovering the ego-stroking nature of the bookstore and the multiple displays of volunteers "dedicated to stamping otu poverty" by selling books bags emblazoned with a UN logo (not to mention my general feeling of dirtiness just for being there), I bought an Israeli flag.
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