Things Fall Apart

New World Notes #518, 28:50 (February 6)
Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

 A public library, from The Ruins of Detroit
by Yves Marchant and Romain Meffre
(Click to enlarge)

The economy ... American political democracy ... the climate ... the whole ecosystem--all seem to be collapsing at once. In a poem of 1920, W.B. Yeats noted, "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold." The show features a good routine on the very subject by George Carlin (early 1990s), music by James McMurtry ("Ruins of the Realm"), Yeats's poem, and somewhat-humorous reflections by K.D.
 

William Butler Yeats