Pete Seeger has just died. Fair enough, we was well into his
nineties.
Appropriately or ironically — both men were, in their
different ways, fighters for freedom and justice — today is also the
(anniversary of the) day Tom Paine was born.
In December of 1792, William Blake and Tom Paine happened to
meet in St Paul’s Churchyard, so William was able to warn Thomas not to go
home, where the police were waiting for him. Paine went instead to Dover and
took the ferry to France, and later went to America. Counterfactual history is
of course a lot of nonsense, but it is disturbing to imagine what might have
happened or not happened had that meeting not taken place. A recent book — ‘Blake’s
Agitation’ by Steven Goldsmith — casts doubt on Blake’s personal engagement in
political action, (though his later influence on libertarian politics could
hardly be denied). That day in the churchyard however, wittingly or not, Blake
did something of great political significance.
Even Voice of America, which slavishly follows the views of
the American Government, devoted several minutes of its morning news today to
the life and work of Pete Seeger, with phrases like ‘Instrumental in the
revival of American Folk Music’. Seeger having been a friend of Woody Guthrie
it was not so much a revival as a continuation. VoA played snatches of several
of his songs, and even mentioned his persecution during the McCarthy era. One
song they didn’t play was his simple funny one mocking the Murcan Way of Life
‘Little Boxes’.
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