I Feel a Breakdown Coming

I feel myself descending
The way I often do
I get the feeling that there’s no ending
When I can’t afford to lose

So, let me pass them by
Don’t try to state your case
I’ve had my fill of trials
And I will be on my way

Just don’t leave town
When you’re down, down, down
Just don’t give up
On the place you’ve grown to love

‘Cause when you turn your back
Bad feelings attack

Come on, now, we know my hands been played out
With city lights tonight, these stars just fade out
I need to stretch my legs, I need to start running
I feel it close, I feel a breakdown coming

Just don’t leave town
When you’re down, down, down
Just don’t give up
On the place you’ve grown to love

‘Cause when you start to pack
Bad feelings attack

~ Dolorean, “Just Don’t Leave Town,” You Can’t Win (Yep Roc, 2007).

The (Not So) Glorious Revolution

“The diminished and impoverished Crown could no longer stand. It fought against the new wealth the struggle of the Civil Wars; it was utterly defeated; and when a final settlement was arrived at in 1660 you have all the realities of power in the hands of a small powerful class of wealthy men, the King still surrounded by the forms and traditions of his old power, but in practice a salaried puppet. And in that social world which underlies all political appearances, the great dominating note was that a few wealthy families had got hold of the bulk of the means of production in England, while the same families exercised all local administrative power and were moreover the Judges, the Higher Education, the Church, and the generals. They quite overshadowed what was left of central government in this country.”

~ Hilaire Belloc, The Servile State, pp. 67-68.