theoldwolf

"Now for me, life is going to start, now I'll tell you when, if I see this government encouraging the arts in this country, and spending their money on things like opera, and concerts, and new music, the sort of thing that people don't do any more, but want some crank like myself to put on some wild concert, people come to that, but if you put on a concert of music by Honegger or Schonberg, or Bartok, the public keeps away, and it's up to you, to you, all of you, to attend these functions, to encourage the arts, and see that the money is spent on things like an opera house, you know, you know, that I was told the other day that the Hamburg town council spends more money on the opera alone than the arts council spends on the entire arts in Great Britain. But then, take it this way, look at the money we spend on armament, look at the money we devote to senseless things, and for me, I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about me, now, for me, life is going to start when I find myself when I find myself living in a proper civilized society, with no color bar, and no race riots, and that's not the worst, but in a society, where young people stand up when they feel that some injustice is done, because they don't, people don't stand up, they will not stand up, they sit back and they say "well, this is a great pity," and that's that. But that's when life is going to start for me, when I find people standing up and do something about things they feel strongly about, these appalling things.
Gerard Hoffnung at the Oxford Union: December 4, 1958

Hoffnung, who could be said to have lived more in 34 years than five people lived in a full lifetime, passed away less than a year after giving the comedic discourse of which this was the conclusion.