Cicero in the 21st Century

© 2003 Stephen Savitzky. CC-by-nc-sa.

More than 2000 years ago, the Roman orator Cicero wrote: "Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book." It's amazing how little has changed.


Lyrics [pdf]

Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book. --Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator and writer (106-43 BCE)

\performance{Steve lead; Naomi chorus}
C G C
T imes were bad two thousand y ears ag o
F C
Said C icero, just take a l ook:
F C
Ch ildren don't obey their p arents
G
And everyone is writing a b ook.
C F C
Well it's b een a long time since  ancient R ome
F C
But look ar ound and you can see it pl ain
F C
We're in a m oral decline   never m ind we're feeling fine
G C
And we're wh istling the same old refr ain:
C F C
Y es, these are terrible times that we l ive in
F C
Soc iety is going to the d ogs
F C
Ch ildren don't obey their p arents
G C
And everyone is wr iting bl ogs.
Once a website used to take a lot of work;
Now blogging software makes it a snap
You just type and click and it's published--
No matter if it's nothing but crap.
What you write doesn't have to be clever
Or interesting, or true;
Join a blog site for free   write your own in PHP
Start a web log today   any idiot can play
And ninety-nine percent of them do.

So now we're living in the blogosphere
Where everyone can write what they please
Consuming half the traffic on the internet
Well, at least they aren't cutting down trees
So come on, all you need is a browser
And a couple dead horses to flog
If your kids don't obey   at least there's something you can say
They can't see you're a dog   if you're writing in your blog
If you like these songs of mine   you know the lyrics are online
And I'm posting all the links in my blog.