Last night I had the strangest dream

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 05 July 2005 12:52:38

Maybe it was going to the Live8 concert on the weekend, but I've been quite overcome by a wave of idealism recently. The impossible - eradicating the majority of extreme poverty - seems within reach. And as I am a musical kind of person, this song has been playing in the jukebox of my head for a couple of weeks now. The idealism of an earlier age could be reflected in a new way, on a different issue, at Gleneagles tomorrow. The idea that politics can make us come together and solve our most entrenched problems.

'Last night I had the strangest dream
I ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war.

I dreamed I saw a mighty room
The room was filled with men
And the people they were silenc-ed
They'd never fight again.

And when the papers all were signed
And a million copies made
They all joined hands and bowed their heads
And grateful prayers were prayed

And the people in the street below
Were dancing round and round
And guns and swords and uniforms
Were scattered on the ground.

Last night I had the strangest dream
I ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war.'

(E.MacCready)

The world waits in anticipation for its leaders to do something remarkable - to put the interests of humanity above the interests of nationhood.