“What the world needs now...”

THE FAMOUS SONG LYRIC THAT STILL RESONATES: “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”        Hal David (1921-2012)        American song lyricist; frequent songwriting partner of Burt Bacharach         The well-known line from the song “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” one of many with lyrics by David and music by Bacharach.         The song was first recorded and popularized by Jackie DeShannon in 1965 and has since recorded by hundreds of other singers and bands.

AN EARLIER, LESS SUCCINCT (BUT EQUALLY ADMIRABLE) VERSION: “What the world needs now, and is ready for, is a patriot’s love for neighbor, fellow-citizen, and native land, based on sympathy and charity for all humanity.”        P.M. Magnusson (fl. late 1800s)        Minnesota educator and writer        Comment in an article published in the School Education Journal, January 1896

PROCHNOW’S VARIATION: “What the world needs is six months of peace so we can catch up on our worrying.”        Herbert V. Prochnow (1897-1998)         American toastmaster, author and bank executive        A quip included in his book 1000 Stories and Illustrations for All Occasions (1994)        (Cartoon by Mike Keefe)

THURMAN'S VARIATION: “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”        Howard Thurman         American author, theologian, educator and civil rights leader        A popular quote of Thurman’s cited by many books and websites. It appears to have been originally quoted by theologian Gil Bailie as something Thurman said to him (recorded in Bailie’s book Violence Unveiled).

THE SEO/WEINER SIZE VARIATION: “I used to charge for access to my blog. But now it’s free, because I’ve realized what the world needs now is not love and peace and other boring turds, but raw unauthorized lists of things that YOU need to do to improve your SEO, PageRank and weiner size.”        Noah Stokes                  American product design and development consultant         A quip on his old website explaining why he is “the best choice for all your front end development needs”

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“Don’t trust anyone over 30” – or under 30 (or over 40)…

THE FAMOUS SIXTIES SLOGAN: “Don’t trust anyone over 30.”         Jack Weinberg        American political activist          A saying based on a comment Weinberg made to a reporter in 1964        This famed Sixties slogan has been attributed to various people, most frequently to Yippie leader Jerry Rubin. Rubin and his Yippie pals did use and help popularize the catchphrase to appeal to young supporters (and because they enjoyed annoying older mainstream Americans). However, most sources agree that the real credit for the saying belongs to Jack Weinberg.        In November 1964, Weinberg was an organizer of “Free Speech Movement” protests at the Berkeley campus of the University of California. At one event, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter asked him if the actions of students were being directed behind the scenes by Communists (a common claim at the time). Weinberg responded: “We have a saying in the movement that we don’t trust anybody over 30.”        The line was picked up by other news reports and then by other activists, usually in the form “Don’t trust anyone over 30” or “Never trust anyone over 30.” Weinberg later said his remark to the reporter was an off-the-cuff quip he made as “a way of telling the guy to back off, that nobody was pulling our strings.” It’s not clear if the saying actually existed before Weinberg made his remark, but he has since been given (and takes) credit for coining it.

AN IRONIC RECENT USE: “I’m going to make something entertaining. I grew up in the era of don’t trust anyone over 30. I still believe that.”        George Lucas        American film director        A consciously ironic comment made by the 70-year-old director at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival         The photo at left is Lucas as a teenager. Given his Star Wars and Indiana Jones movie series, I suspect he’s still a teenager at heart in terms of his taste in movies. (Like me. And I’m 65.)

THE BLACK PANTHER’S COUNTERQUOTE: “There are people over 30 I trust. I’m over 30, and I trust me.”        Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998)        American writer, 1960s Black Panther Party leader          Remark in an interview in Playboy, December 1968 in response to the question by interviewer Nat Hentoff: “Do you agree with those who feel that this generation of youth is going to ‘sell out’ to the status quo as it moves into middle age?”        Cleaver’s full response to the question was: “I expect all of us will become somewhat less resilient as we get into our 40s and 50s—if we live that long—and I'm sure that those who come after us will look back on us as being conservative. Even us Panthers. But I don’t think this generation will become as rigid as the ones before; and, for that matter, I don’t write off all older people right now. There are a lot of older whites and blacks who keep working for change. So there are people over 30 I trust. I’m over 30, and I trust me.”

THE QUOTE MAVEN’S TWEAK: “Never trust anyone over-dirty.”        Robert Byrne         American writer and novelist best known for as the editor of five popular collections of humorous quotations         Quoting himself in his book 1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said

THE AGING BOOMER UPDATE: “Some aging Boomers are now more likely to mutter under their breath, ‘Don’t trust anyone under thirty.’ So it goes.”        Mary Ann Wynkoop        Professor of History Emerita at the University of Missouri-Kansas City        In her book Dissent in the Heartland: The Sixties

AN EARLY PRECURSOR: “Every man over forty is a scoundrel.”        George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)        Irish playwright and social critic         In “Maxims for Revolutionists,” part of the written appendix of his play Man and Superman (1903)         (At left is a photo of Shaw at age 43, looking a bit, er, scoundrelish.)

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