Composed & performed by GW, in commemoration of the White Rose anti-Nazi resistance. Additional vocals by Aimée Anders.
Based on a translation of the White Rose’s second leaflet, distributed in June 1942, including both the quote from Lao-tse and the request to make as many copies as possible, with the word “leaflet” changed to “broadcast”.
Counterpoint quotes are from Hannah Arendt’s definitive study, The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951.
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The tumor broke open
And infected the whole body
Now the end is at hand
When a wave of unrest
Goes through the land
When it is in the air
This catastrophe
Terror without end
can be shaken off
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“Society is always prone to accept a person offhand for what he pretends to be, so that a crackpot posing as a genius always has a certain chance to be believed.” — Hannah Arendt
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Gregory Whitehead 