Hmm the video rang out triple threes, 3:33 I like that.

While watching this video a memory flashed in my mind of the very first time I was called a "cynic". I was 25 years old (1984) and can recall my knee-jerk emotional response of offense, but mostly confused annoyance. That was the year I bought my very first CD and it was Pink Floyd "The Final Cut". That was also the year I quit my job on the village of Waverly, Street Dept to return to college at Corning, NY. My son was already 5 years old, my daughter was 1 year old. I having calculated that my recent 35 cent raise carrying me to a total of $5.25 per hour (before Teamsters Union dues) was a warning against complacency, and so I happily committed to forfeit this income vowing to do whatever necessary to procure family security in the long run. Meanwhile the reviews of the Floyd album were ugly rejection of what was perceived as a self-indulgent cynical nature eroding Roger Waters' responsibility to Floyd. The criticism I received from kin was stereotypical manifest from cowardice they would not face.

I had a full-time job and apartment as a senior in high school 1977 so by 1984 I was ahead of the curve in street smarts. I took the path others refused and doubled my income straight out of school. Later I was hit by a drunk driver, herniating discs in my back and wasn't allowed to work in maintenance at the factory with any limitations so I went back again and got a business degree moving on to sell securities. I sold out of that business just before the dot com bubble broke. I knew the world was getting darker, but nobody told me there'd be days like these. If I've learned anything it's that the herd always prefers to expand hell in all directions rather than just grow the fuck up, man up, and stand up. But of course I'm forever the "cynic" expecting too much from most people.

Thank goodness Roger Waters lost no steam in his pursuit of truth. Even a misanthrope can appreciate his company, and I'm sure both of us appreciate James Corbett.

Woodchuck Pirate
aka Raymond J Raupers Jr USA
woodchuckpirate.com