*-PETE TOWNSHEND'S 1989 RECORDING, "THE IRON MAN", RECORDS THE FOLLOWING IN ITS COVER NOTES:There are some things i'd like to add as an introduction to "Science Fiction", my poem for "Tesseracts3".
In recent years i've received a number of recommendations that i write a book about some international diplomatic work i did in a variety of fields in the 1970s and 1980s, and i hope to have one ready for publication by 1992 (though it may be preceded by a collection of reports and responses to them re South Africa and encouraging the peaceful dismantling of apartheid.
I came to that work without formal training or an extensive background in international diplomacy; and, not being a politician either, i continued my personal writing of poetry for eventual use either in a collection (i hope to see published after my book about my diplomatic work) or for use as song lyrics for albums i might do.
The latter option is particularly appropriate because the diplomatic work in large part originally involved dealings with popular entertainers and musicians who were asked to help encourage public interest in such matters as aid for disadvantaged peoples, shifting policy priorities from continuation of the arms race to such aid, and promoting the development of social changes to increase respect of human rights--and thusly, encouraging individual consideration of what each of us can contribute to this goal of making this a better, more peaceful world for "all of us".
Politicians being politicians, many were the times when i
found it almost impossible to simply enunciate an obvious
concern and step necessary (in my judgment) in a process because
they would be misinterpreted by the politicians as contrary to
some goal they had set for society.
And when the politicians have self-interests in mind more than
the real good of society, we end up with things like
"Watergate" and "Irangate" or the massacre of
students in Tienanmen Square--where in the longer run the
original, perhaps worthy goal is that much more difficult to
achieve because it is the rare politician who ever admits a
mistake was made and that it must be corrected before proceeding
further.
I wrote a lot of poetry at these times of frustration, always
thinking ahead to my book of poetry (though sometimes i included
the poetry in my diplomatic presentations) and bearing in mind
that the future of civilization rests with how today's society
treats its children: that if we offer them lies and disrespect
now, we deny both them and ourselves the best future we can
mutually attain and share. As musician Pete Townshend*
explained on July 24, 1989, speaking about rock music and its
effects on and responsibilities to its young, maturing
listeners:
The same should be true of poetry, of international
diplomacy, of science.
Professor John Polkinghorne, renowned British
theoretical physicist and president of Queen's College,
Cambridge, speaking to a University of B.C. audience about the
relationship between science and religion and the arts (as was
reported in a September 30, 1989 Vancouver Sun article),
observed that too often science takes "a lowest common
denominator approach" to determining the nature of reality. He
analysed that a scientist has the limited capacity to examine,
for instance, a Rembrandt self-portrait, and determine
the chemical make-up of the paint and canvas. He went on to
say, therefore, that:
*-PETE TOWNSHEND'S 1989 RECORDING, "THE IRON MAN", RECORDS THE FOLLOWING IN ITS COVER NOTES:
"SOME OF PETE TOWNSHEND'S INCOME FROM NEW LIFE (A SONG ON THIS RECORDING) IS BEING PAID TO BLACK AFRICAN EDUCATION CHARITIES.
SOME OF PETE TOWNSHEND'S INCOME FROM ALL SHALL BE WELL (ANOTHER SONG ON THIS RECORDING) IS BEING PAID TO THE LINCOLN TRUST, A NON-AGGRESSIVE ANTI-APARTHEID GROUP INCLUDING WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS."