Ah, the power of music...
The late Tom Lehrer is, in this humble radioactive activist's opinion, one of the greatest satirists of all time. You have to wonder how a Harvard-trained mathematician (he never got his doctorate, but who cares; he did something much more important!!!) goes to the dark side in such a bright, creative way???
Where would we be without satire in a world that for over three quarters of a century has been poised to destroy itself with the very omnicidal devices of its own making? It's very definition rises to the occasion: "the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues." Lehrer nails it by definition and far beyond!
As he once wrote in a song about Wernher von Braun, the former rocket scientist to the Nazis who the U.S. government brought to our shores to build our nation's rocket program (which became NASA), "'Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department,' says Wernher von Braun."As for von Braun, who invented the infamous V-2 rocket, he infamously shot for the stars, but hit London.
As for Lehrer, he had a deep enough understanding of the madness of the nuclear arms race, and had the creative, satirical skills to write brilliant lyrics (and some darn good instrumentals too).
Other songs to help us all put on a happy face for the coming apocalypse include the quintessential nonproliferation proliferation piece Who's Next. This might be the time to dust this one off with so many countries wondering if they should get their own nukes (to fend off mighty nuclear-armed nations like Russia... and maybe even the U.S.).
To finish things off (no pun intended), you can't do better than We Will All Go Together When We Go (and we certainly will if we don't abolish nuclear weapons before they abolish humanity!!!).
As for satire, long may it live... even though Lehrer once remarked that, "Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel peace prize.”
He's got a good point there...
