Talk:Thousand points of light

Sisters of Mercy song "vision thing"
im not an editor, but The Sisters of Mercy song "vision thing" makes a reference to the speech. actually, the whole song is about the bush sr. administration--68.96.52.71 (talk) 03:01, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

official list?
Here is the official list of all the points of light: http://www.pointsoflight.org/programs/recognition/dpol/awards. President Bush named the first 1,020 honorees while he was in office. He awarded the 5,000th award on July 15, 2013 at a ceremony at the White Host hosted by President Obama.Wrightwaller (talk) 18:42, 14 September 2013 (UTC)wrightwaller is there somewhere an official list of all the Points of Light the Bush administration acknowledged? Kingturtle = (talk) 18:45, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Rescue Party, by Arthur C. Clarke
In Clarke's first published story, Rescue Party, the following sentence appears:

"Three of Rugon's slender control tentacles, useless for heavy work but incredibly swift at all manipulation, flickered over the selector dials and the screen lit up with a thousand points of light." (http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/0743498747/0743498747___1.htm)

I imagine this is where Bush's speech writers borrowed the phrase from. I'm hesitant to include this in the article, though, unless it's verifiable. I wonder if Peggy or Craig would own up if we asked them? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Curtis Autery (talk • contribs) 13:44, 19 October 2013 (UTC)

Examples of parody and criticism from pop culture
I was thinking a short reference this stuff could be tacked on to the end of the sentence that refers to the NYT article. Smething like "Culutral refernces to the phrase include Neil Young's song....as well as Dana Carvery's SNL parody of the president's use of the phrase..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young#Return_to_prominence_.281989.E2.80.931999.29 ^The first part of this section talks about Neil Young's overt political criticism at the time. His song Rockin' the Free World makes explicit reference to the thousand points of light:

"We got a thousand points of light For the homeless man We got a kinder, gentler, Machine gun hand We got department stores and toilet paper Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive."

It is also included in the songs page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockin%27_in_the_Free_World

As far as the SNL parody of the 1k lights goes it wasn't very recurring, though it did receive big laughs so I can see the merits of not including it. However, I definitely think that Neil Young's song is probably the best known *cultural critique* of the phrase/the promises made by HW at the time and ought to be alluded to. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kapooz (talk • contribs) 03:42, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Earlier uses?
The Earlier uses section seems to be entirely irrelevant to the article. Is there any reason to keep this?

-- MC 141.131.2.3 (talk) 19:37, 9 July 2018 (UTC) There should be mention of HG Wells uses of the phrase (at least twice) for eg: 1928 – H.G. Wells wrote in The Open Conspiracy: Blueprints for a World Revolution: The political world of the Open Conspiracy must weaken, efface, incorporate and supersede existing governments….The character of the Open Conspiracy will then be plainly displayed. It will be a world religion. This large, loose assimilatory mass of groups and societies will definitely and obviously attempt to swallow up the entire population of the world and become a new human community….The immediate task before all people, a planned World State, is appearing at a thousand points of light [but]…generations of propaganda and education may have to precede it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.59.122.112 (talk) 07:15, 3 October 2020 (UTC)


 * It's hard to see why this particular passage was excluded while Burroughs, Lewis and others are still included. In Burroughs' case ridiculous speculation about George Bush trying to avoid saying his name (with no indication he even knew who Burroughs was). It's just such a blatant double standard, but I guess wikipedia has earned that reputation these days. 70.26.68.20 (talk) 05:30, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

Paradise Lost
In Book VII 381-383 of Paradise Lost, John Milton writes (describing the Creation and in particular the moon and stars):

"and her Reign / With thousand lesser Lights dividual holds, / With thousand thousand Starres, that then appeer'd / Spangling the Hemisphere"

This seems clearly the source of the CS Lewis lines and may be a source of the others. Djilk (talk) 22:28, 31 May 2023 (UTC)