Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Lord, Where's My Mercedes Dude!

To be remembered after we are dead, is but poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living.
William Hazlitt (1778–1830), English essayist

I was driving to work yesterday listening to Janis Joplin and the lyrics to her song “Mercedes Benz” and it occurred to me why the religious right is so popular. It's because they are all praying for and preying on others and surprisingly they are scoring.

The quote above seemed rather apropos to my thoughts about the religious right or left.

Here is a sampling of Joplin’s song in case you have forgotten it.

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends,
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?

3 comments:

Chandira said...

Exactly.

There is no sense of love of God in most people's 'prayers', just a sense of love of self. Me me me me.

My friend Kip has a good analogy, he said most people are like the crazy person you see talking to the trash can. That kind of prayer is about as effective, to.. I love that image. ;-)

The Misanthrope said...

Chandira, you are so right. It is 90% of the time things that they want.

Janet said...

I sometimes wonder how artists like Joplin would feel about their songs being commercialized today. But then again, just like Elvis Costello once said, "Was it a millionaire who said imagine no possessions?"

Welcome back. Don't know if you were ever "gone" but it's been awhile.:)