Time And Time Again We Ignore...

Time and again they tell us of

Natural systems that are collapsing

Time and again we glimpse

Species as they are disappearing

Time and again it is said that

such and such practices are not sustainable

Time and again we hear of

Shameful waste that must be stopped

Time and again we read about

Shocking crimes in our own society

Time and again we think that

we must finally take a stand

time and again we ignore

the quiet truth that surrounds us all

Time and again they tell us of

The wondrous power of prayer

Time and again we help ourselves

to more than we can ever use

Time and again it is said that

Clean air and water cost too much in jobs and money

Time and again we hear of

Liberal plots against our family values

Time and again we read about

The ways our children fall even further behind

Time and again we think that

Common sense must begin to prevail at last

Time and again we ignore

The unread lessons of our musty past

Time and time again they pummel us with

These vital issues like gay marriage and abortion

Time and again we see

The free market drive up the price of disappearing goods

Time and again it is said that

Fuzzy thinking and junk science are plotting against us

Time and time again we hear of

The costs of so-called environmental racism

Time and again we read about

The grinding poverty of the global masses

Time and again we think that

Events a world away do not affect us

Time and again we ignore

The subtle signals nature sends

Time and again they share with us

Their clear visions of our bright future

Time and again we see

Too many people carrying water and cutting firewood

Time and again it is said that

Giving our jobs away will help to make us richer

Time and again we hear of

Subversive media plots pushing a godless agenda

Time and again we read about

CEOs eliminating jobs and slashing benefits and getting huge rewards

Time and again we think that

Surely now things must, at last begin to change

Time and again we ignore

The legacy of our uncontrolled consumption

Time and again they tell us of

Their duty to defend us, as they attack

Time and again we see

Peaceful pictures on the wall and bulldozers out the window

Time and again it is said that

Politics and religion have a place in scientific debates

Time and again we hear of

The latest in unbelievable social atrocities

Time and again we read about

Dire new threats to the environment

Time and again we think that

Certain trends can surely go no further

Time and again we ignore

Things we cannot, or do not wish to see changed

Time and again they tell us of

Horrible tragedies in far off lands

Time and again we see that

Freedom of expression turns an arrogant ignorance into a virtue

Time and again our shopping habits tells them

Mass-produced food at rock-bottom prices makes us happy

Time and again we hear of

miracle breakthroughs for baldness, impotence and weight loss

Time and again we read about

People just trying to obtain a little clean drinking water

Time and again we assume that

Our lives will continue in this style on into the Happily-ever-after

Time and again we ignore

Global facts which do not suit our national agenda

Time and again they tell us irrelevant stories

Of mighty civilizations that have crumbled into the dust

Time and again we are pounded with

Another complex issue reduced to a 30 second sound bite

Time and again it is said that

Wars of liberation will bring about freedom and democracy

Time and again we hear of

The inexcusable differences between the rich and the poor

Time and again we read about

Poaching and habitat destruction threatening one more species

Time and again we are assured that

Corporate globalization inevitably leads to a better world

Time and again we ignore

The unsustainable overpopulation that further dims all our futures

Time and again they tell us of

The average person’s struggle to attain the barest needs of survival

Time and again we see that

Some casually waste more than most ever have to consume

Time and again it is said that

Tax breaks for the richest are the surest way of reducing poverty

Time and again we hear of

Cultures where women remain ignorant, veiled, barefoot and pregnant

Time and again we see pictures of

Diarrheic babies, bloated and hungry, with fly-encrusted eyes

Time and again we are told that

It is fruitless to try and fathom the mystery of god’s will

Time and again we ignore

The wanton destruction of the very earth that supports us

Time and again they tell us of

The power of local control to protect everything important

Time and again we watch as

Hungry people cut down trees as their goats graze the land bare

Time and again our leaders assure us that

God blesses our country and guides their great decisions

Time and again we hear

Foreign religious fanatics proclaiming holy wars against such infidels as us

Time and again we are reminded that

God’s gift of the soul separates us from the animals

Time and again we ignore

Tainted facts that emanate from pre-condemned sources

Time and again they tell us of

The need to ensure that their unnecessary sacrifice will not be in vain

Time and again we see that

We gain by the inhuman labor of the peasants who took our jobs

Time and again it is said that

The miracle of compound growth will set us all free in the end

Time and again we are made just dimly aware of

Tragic events that can never happen here

Time and again we are quite confident that

We can simply muddle through the unforeseen effects of our unplanned actions

Time and again we ignore

The myriad small changes, so that we do not see their net effects

Time and again they tell us of

The foolishness of taking expensive action, without real certainty

Time and again we see that

We need to trust them as they act in secret, relying upon their personal faith

Time and again it is said that

We must globalize, downsize and outsource to compete

Time and again we hear of

Heinous plots against our beliefs and freedom by heathen enemies

Time and again we re-assure ourselves of

The correctness of our actions without re-examining our assumptions

Time and again reports indicate how little our children are learning

Yet we still treat them as if they were future world leaders

Time and again we give a little thanks while praying for even more

Statutory Eco-Rape

Not to worry boys, we got all the laws on our side

Don’t be shy son, just you go on and take her, it’s all right there, you’ll see

She can’t be too young, too tender, too virgin or too shy by our rules

We’ll cut her off from her family and auction her into unconditional slavery

We can take the best of her for ourselves and then pimp her scabby remains

The big boys have greased her skids so to speak, heh-heh

Now, let’s bend her over with those snorting, smoking bulldozers

Take her from behind with all the tenderness of massive toothy excavators

Look over there in the corner at that little piece of paper hanging there

This genocidal gang rape and murder have all been OK’d by our elected officials

She makes not a whimper, just sheds a few birds and bunnies in her sadness

Bent over and biting on a tree stump with her crying eyes tightly closed

Everybody here is safely covered by the many well-written statutes of our good laws

So bulldoze those trees, channelize that stream and fill in those wetlands

Just work that squaw until she can’t walk and nobody wants her anymore

Bust out her teeth, defile her and don’t bother to let her wash

Abort without guilt or mercy any new life she might try and bring forth

You sleep well at night as she lies dirty under a fake bluegrass blanket

Circumcise and mutilate her in the name of your sacred freedom to short-term profit

Take legislated pride instead of spiritual shame in this wasteful holocaust

God knows that it’s patriotic progress, so kick her in the stomach and laugh out loud

Boast how you have conquered and tamed her as you hawk her to passersby

Slap her in the face for not looking at them as they pick at her and probe her

Sell her off, forget about her and be counted among the virtuous and wise rich

Go ahead and tie her up and dress her any way that you think they will find hot

There ain’t no law against it, everybody does it and the Bible says so, too

She’s got no dignity, rights or freedom - anymore than any stupid animal

Ain’t no sense in letting the lazy bitch just set there and go to waste

Let’s do a group bulldozing on her and then go have a few cold beers

It’ll be easier to get approval if we first kill the animals and pock her with roads

Get her off her lazy ass and set her out to turn us some profits

God put them laws and guns and heavy equipment upon our righteous side so let’s use them

Don’t listen to them libtard fairytales, kid, step up and take a place with the men

We’ll get her done and have a barbecue and go to church tomorrow

You get her down from behind on all fours and I’ll shove it in her mouth

We’ll just see if she’s still got anything left to say after that…

Why do they hate us

Why do they hate us, we all ask, quite aghast

Not because we will not join in banning the blind crippling of land mines

But why do they hate us, we must ask again

We will not join their foolish and costly greenhouse reduction folly

Tell us clearly then and get to the point, why do they hate us

Our citizens alone must remain above the laws of any world court

Why do they hate us, we ponder driving alone in our obese gas hogs

we won’t sign their treaties for the rights of women or children

One more time, name the thing that they hate that lurks here within us

we subsidize farming but preach free trade to a world that is starving

Even so, show me the one thing that makes them hate us all

we let a million die in Rwanda but intervene over Kuwaiti and Iraqi oil

Look, in plain language just spell it out - why do they hate us

over 2 million die of AIDS in Africa without our concern every year

but we trumpet that the greatest tragedy of them all happened on 9-11

Seriously, though, do they really hate us all

we will not sign their treaty to put an end to chemical warfare

You simply must give the reason that they target us with hatred

we hasten the cutting of the 2% old growth that is left on our land

while counseling them to save all of the forests that they still have

But, really then, that could not be why they would hate us

we give them our worst jobs and make slaves of their peoples,

poison their waters and ravage their lands to satisfy our consumer whims

Certainly that is not why they would hate us

we are illiterate, cultural imperialists

waterboarding their minds with our vapid Hollywood entertainment

That just sounds like nonsense, what's the real reason they hate us

We just yell at them louder in a language that we ourselves cannot even read or write

Give it a break and tell me why do they hate us

we generously support criminal regimes that repress and torture them

and let them rob their countries blind with a wink and a nod

Surely you jest, now tell the truth, why do they hate us

we trade them all off, one against another

while we try and take them for everything, that they still have

Why do they hate us, why do they hate us, we must ask again

Because God is on our exceptionist side

and they must be either with or against us for United We Stand

In reality, you have not outlined any real reason for their hatred

Well, we are an outlaw, cowboy nation run by fundamentalists

Possessed of lots of nasty weapons, pointed in all directions

Sing it loudly, now brother, and say it really ain’t that they hate us

We have proudly, noisily and foolishly descended

From the land of the free and the home of the brave

To the land of the ignorant and the home of the half-cocked

You mumble half truths relying on junk science, speak up, why do they hate us

Six percent of world population but, 35 percent of all its emissions

And eleven percent of us cannot even find our own country on a globe

Enough of spineless, liberal claptrap: where is their hatred against us?

We spout off about universal opportunity and equality

While generations right here live in poverty, hopelessness and ignorance

These unrelated and twisted facts are not enough, why would they hate us

We side with the jews who enclose the arabs in a sandy ghetto

And vote with the Israelis when it counts and give them lots of money

That is all just so many smelly road apples - now, why do they direct hatred our way

Our poorest abusers waste more every day on drugs

Than those without drinking water, electricity or gas earn in a month

Why would they hate us, is it not just simple jealousy?

We spend more on defense than the rest of them combined

We invade and torture and then lecture them on freedom and morality

Why do they hate us

We sneer and laugh at them like they were ignorant, bumbling idiots

So unswervingly certain of our god-given place at the head of the table

Greed Shall Overcome

Greed is love, Greed is mercy

Greed shall light my way, all the days of my life

Greed is pure, Greed is honest

Let greed be my real and true life’s purpose

Greed is patriotic, Greed is forthcoming

Greed is my weapon in the struggle for survival

Greed is godlike, Greed shall overcome

Help my greed to grow greater the more that I succeed

Greed is jealous, Greed is vengeful

Greed barks not even one other true passion

Greed is hope, Greed is righteous

Let all see the greed that shines from within me

Greed is a fountain, Greed is all-consuming

Greed provides the framework supporting my life

Greed is forgiving, Greed is always within me

Greed guides the blind hand of the omnipotent free market

Greed is my true passion, Greed lights my path

Greed is never satisfied by any past

Greed is truth, Greed is salvation

Greed help me to assume man’s highest form

Greed is good, Greed is great

Thank you dear god for all this greed, amen

Here's That Awful, UnHidden AntiFa Agenda

Stop this insane, ever-increasing spending on weapons, war and killing

Use war money in an all-out effort to obtain clean energy independence

End the spiraling costs of the phony charade called free market health care

Make it more expensive to develop productive land than to raze and rebuild

Amend our infallible constitution to guarantee a sustainable environment

Implement policy to maintain large portions of all our ecosystems intact

Build everything better than it has to be and make things which can be repaired

Reward companies which add more features while increasing efficiency

Face up to the fact that over-population is our single biggest problem

Train all would-be parents and require a license for every single child

Measure and tax non-point pollution releases from our vehicles and homes

Make abortion a non-issue with mandatory contraceptives and parent licensing

Help bind our country together by making English our official language

Make sure everyone learns at least one second tongue

Get the prisoners working on water, sewer, road and bridge projects

Scan package ids to your account and get billed if convicts pick it up for you

Drop the pathetic fantasy that man exists apart from nature and the animals

Stop using expensive resources to grow cattle cereal crops they cannot even digest

Stop fattening livestock on human-edible grain in grimy, deathcamp feedlots

Clean up, humanize and sanctify our filthy, shameful slaughterhouses

Legalize, regulate and tax the herb and monitor individual usage

Let citizens have all the weapons of the army or only hunting firearms

Tax executives based on how much more they make than their workers

Teach parents to foster educational excellence, like our Asian immigrants

Issue tamper-proof national ID cards using biometric identifiers

Track alcohol consumption and tax it based on increasing individual use

Tax gasoline usage at the pump based on income, MPG and miles driven

Dump this bullshit electoral college nonsense before the next election

License, tax, protect and insure temporary immigrant workers

Implant chips into undocumented aliens and expel them without exception

Levy stiff fines based on revenue against companies hiring illegal residents

Stop the farce of children born here to illegales automatically being citizens

End the gender-based glass ceiling and dismantle the good old boy network

Ignore those who want both equal rights and for men to hold the doors for them

Admit that it is impossible to be both a driven executive and a good parent

Stop dumping workers at 50 as their retirement age and life expectancy increase

Tax and regulate religion like any other franchised corporate Ponzi scheme

Stop giving foreign aid via jobs and imports in the guise of globalization

End evangelistic, ill-considered and poorly-executed cowboy foreign policy

Quit blaming the schools for the ignorance and laziness of our own children

Make the overweight pay more for large portions of fat-laden food and drink

Realize that water and sanitation engineers do more for health than doctors

Tax the crap out of that so-called “gaming industry” vampire

Monitor and treat chronic gamblers while automatically limiting their losses

Eliminate such careers as professional politician and corporate lobbyist

Legalize prostitution and put all the exploiting pimps out of business

Stop denying them contraception and then ignoring their unwanted children

Make all parties responsible for mandatory recycling of packaging and worn-out items

Question pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and irrigation with fossil water

Out incompetent, suck-up, kick-down managers who flit from job to job

Internationally regulate and enforce sustainable ocean harvests

End realtor percentage commissions, phony closing costs and fake finance charges

Become a brother to Russia and forge unbreakable bonds with Europe

Promote organic, biologically-controlled agriculture to save energy and our soils

Tax beef fed exportable grain and enjoy cheaper, leaner free-range steaks

Promote efficient agricultural usage by making water far more expensive

Ensure everyone has a grasp and appreciation of the technologies that support them

Strive for a civilization that thrives while maintaining a healthy biosphere

Clean up our urban waters and confine jet skis to these areas

Make our dumps nice enough to restrict ATVs, 4WDs and dirt bikes to them

Change our pledge to say “One nation under god and a part of the global ecosphere”

Stop importing oil and isolate the sheiks until they get their shit together

Foster green home energy generation and sharing via the existing grid

Tax the shit out of prescription anti-aging products and cosmetic surgery

Ensure all our lakes and rivers are clean enough for fish and drinking water

Wean the black man away from violence, drugs, prison and early death

Keep firearms available but make ammunition very expensive…and traceable

Maintain a sense of humor regarding all of our beliefs and actions

Get god out of the government that’s supposedly by and for the people

Stop pitting science against religion and twisting research to political ends

Build homes to last for centuries and keep farmland healthy forever by law

Bring back the wild salmon runs on both coasts as a measure of our progress

Quit being spray-painted and filled with toxic chemicals for overpriced funerals

Teach so that corporate beer, bread, fast food and fatty factory snacks disappear

Enforce a constitutional right to privacy or implant us all with microchips

Realize that an idling 300 horsepower engine is not a personal air-conditioner

Make billions on desalinization, CO2 reduction and alternative energy innovations

Stop the insidious takeover of our land via subsidized illegal immigration

Drop the self-appointed roles of righteous sheriff and preacher to the world

Instead of buying, breaking and burying - Master repair, reuse and recycling

Make a stint in the military or the Peace Corp mandatory and universal

Eliminate all smoking-related health benefits for every tobacco user

Fine those who piously intone “God Bless America” after a political speech

Devise and use a computer program which maintains fair voting districts

Dump that lame Star Spangled Banner in favor of America the Beautiful

Create vast wildlife reserves on the Great Plains and bring on safari tourism

Erase the physical and psychological borders between us and the Canadians

Force our so-called visionary business “leaders” to see beyond the next Quarter

Ensure that the whales and dolphins retain viable and healthy populations

Give the gays their rights but keep them off parade floats in grape holders

Clean up coal mining and burning to provide good jobs and clean energy

Do not permit the latino to take over this country via welfare and crime

Get the corporations and professional managers off of our precious farms

Just build automobiles as good as Hondas and Toyotas or simply go bankrupt

End dependence on slave Chinese peasant factory labor for the basics of life

Admit that the main problem in social security is “Pay as you go” spending

End omnibus spending bills and re-legalize the line item veto

Own up to and repent for the foolish, tragic, costly, wasteful Iraq debacle

Atone for our sins in Haiti, Guatemala, Chile, Cuba, San Salvador, et al

Judge ourselves annually on how well we manage our ecological trust for the future

De-emphasize sports and find ways to reward academics and human services

Don’t insure and rebuild in flooded areas - Make them into parks and farms

End the lost, stupid, expensive, alienating, destructive “War on Drugs”

Do not permit the poor and ignorant a higher birthrate than the educated

Make ranchers maintain the ecosystem and end their welfare on our public lands

Embrace sustainability over artificially-induced, non-maintainable growth

Have all the children learn world geography, culture, history and religions

Resurrect the engineering that gave us the Apollo and space shuttle projects

Reprogram society such that fast food and Hollywood simply wither

Add a purchase surtax to loud, redneck exhaust systems based on decibels produced

Get our infants and seniors out of the hands of the uncaring immigrant poor

Realize that if the old are irrelevant that our own lives are most certainly meaningless

Keep track of all the time you save and see if you really ever get to spend it

Slap down overpriced plumbers, mechanics and the like by doing more for yourself

Terminate all government and military retirement plans immediately

Break the foolish seed, fertilize, poison, water, cut the stupid grass cycle

Pay more as your trash increases per person instead of less by volume

Save remaining fossil fuel reserves for unforeseeable future emergencies

Ensure that children know why religions are invented and how they evolve

Help Africa finally find its own way out of poverty, squalor, war and disease

Make sure we all know where and how our food and energy are produced

Cast off the “chosen people” delusion and wonder at our vast and lucky fortune

Quickly explore fast breeder thorium reactor technology for clean, bountiful energy

Change our bloated, wasteful consumption ethic along with our fuel sources

De-institutionalize and abandon our two entrenched and fossilized political parties

Face head on the unpalatable fact that money controls the electoral process

Recognize that government tax policy is increasing economic stratification

End the myth that blindly satisfying greed guides us toward a better society

Show us the dead civilians, enemy fighters, our own casualties and their families

Cut out the disgusting, convoluted, spaghetti-like tumor that is our tax code

Stop rewarding their tired ‘merge and cut 20% of jobs for bonuses’ Corpro nonsense

Restore and preserve our precious wetlands and marine estuaries, for Christ’s sake

Halve the average time and energy wasted on useless commuting every day

Stop government’s growth strategy of competing for taxes from new malls

Achieve a sustainable 50% reduction in world population within 50 years

Automatically turn off the outside lights at night when there is no motion

Study Comparative Religion right up there along with Creative Writing

Make sure that every person is sensitive to shame or put them in therapy

Get fresh water from the sea and consume with far less waste

Help the handicapped, but do not transform the entire world in their image

Nurture smaller numbers children like the precious and finite resource they must be

Reward questioning the arbitrary, the capricious, the irrational and the dogmatic

Instill faith and morals even though our struggle is unending and un-winnable

Teach people to retain focus despite the rapid blur of their fleeting lives

Instill a notion of our short moment on the earth relative to the age of the universe

Preserve the remaining indigenous populations as reservoirs of knowledge

Stop ‘Local Control’ from meaning outsiders buy out, build, sell and then leave

Drop the exceptionist world cop role and take the lowest profile possible

End the archaic, hypocritical insanity of government-backed religious wars

Realize we can learn as much from our mistakes as from our lucky guesses

Set musicians and writers loose from the parasitical media conglomerates

Quit blowing one foolish and wasteful speculative bubble after another

Drop the lie that we are safer if we all drive clumsy, over-priced, tank-like monsters

Waste no more money on impossible missile defense from invisible enemies

Move Israel away and then quarantine the terrorists with Allah, out in the desert

End the myth that economic progress is dependent upon environmental devastation

Teach everyone the dangers and symptoms of fanaticism in all of its forms

Freely and openly question the basics of democracy, capitalism, religion and freedom

Fearless, Furtive Corporate Leaders

Who are these leaders that we only follow because our paychecks barely cover us week to week?

These so-called captains of industry, siphoning off vast and undeserved riches

Preaching the value of competition while buying government import tariffs

From where do they draw the moral authority and social conscience to send our jobs overseas?

Masters of simultaneous backbiting and ass-kissing, they have shoulder-climbed to the top

Faceless drones in expensive suits, piously mouthing an ambiguous patriotic, political correctness

People who do not write and let others read their email, yet make great decisions

Their Insular MBAs, lawyers and accountants provide all the counsel they might ever need

Great swashbuckling heroes who lack the courage to meet the eyes of those they pay

Half man, half mannequin, parroting pre-digested, nonsensical, pre-recorded pabulum

Intrepidly guiding that great ship of capitalism from high above in a rich suite, safe on shore

Trained in the arts of cronyism and influence-peddling, they scuttle from the light of inquiry

They are our great moral beacons, illuminating all that’s good within our system

Lying and dealing to raise stock prices, stealing and then floating off under golden parachutes

Able to control simpering lackeys with the mere suspicious raising of an eyebrow

Mouthing pious platitudes about free trade while bribing officials for subsidies

Great patriots and defenders of freedoms with huge secret offshore accounts

Supporters of human rights running sweatshops throughout the third world

Brave knights of capitalism on a quest to secretly become Masters of the Universe

Good fathers they are, sending our children’s jobs to foreign lands forever

Far-seeing leaders whose great vision sometimes might even extend beyond next quarter’s results

Defenders of democracy, running brutal, petty, hidden dictatorships all their own

Falsely pumping stock prices through churning by formulaic mergers, layoffs and synergy

Slashing jobs and benefits by the magic twenty percent analysts approve

Whining that America requires better education in science and math

Outsourcing engineering and research jobs, saving money for perhaps one whole year

Commanding lavish perqs, bonuses and stock options as star players

Yet, their actual contributions are not measurable by standard accounting methods

Treating the masses like sheep, hand-in-hand with friendly political sock puppets

They measure world progress by secret internal financial statements and stock market numbers

Staying on message via the media they have simplified and conglomerated

Blithely not even reporting that which ruffles their sponsor’s agendas

Benevolent dictators of food, fashion, sport, automobiles and recreation

Agilely co-opting, cheapening and offshore mass-producing other’s ideas for quick profits

Marginalizing dissident voices via their paid professional ‘opinion leaders’

Upbeat no matter what, and inevitably ‘eager for the chance to clear my name’ without no comment

Insulated in estates, limousines and personal jets, they listen to their guts

Their god-given talents wasted on greed, hubris and corporate politics

Who are these ‘leaders’ at whose behest politicians rail so loudly against over-regulation?

Who spends millions on crafted corporate images which totally bely their real actions & intentions?

They preach the wisdom and benevolence of the unfettered free marketplace

Meanwhile, blackmailing for tax breaks and whining of regulation’s costs in jobs and money

They extol the benefits of free enterprise, competition and entrepreneurship

They merge and acquire towards a goal of tightly-controlled global oligarchies

Hiding, shifting and conniving to ‘make their numbers’ and fool the analysts

Dumping pumped, exorbitant stock options at the top of an artificial curve they created

Lying about leaving to ‘pursue other interests’ or ‘to spend more time with their families’

They feel terrible for employees watching as locked retirement savings evaporate

How is it they are revered as all-powerful, absolute, unchallenged dictators? -

While always claiming they did nothing and knew nothing of those many wrongdoings

They rise based on their need for attention, all consuming greed and blackhole egos

When under scrutiny they appear mute in fine suits with expensive lawyers who do all the talking

They retreat inside secured compounds saying they look forward to clearing their names

Once they have safely sheltered their takings they express their grief and deepest sympathies

Who are these swashbuckling lieutenants who cook books to woo the analysts?

Smirking masters of slick PowerPoints posturing behind hardwood podiums in fine suits

Shallow and petty, vapid and vain, pathologically-focused and viciously passively-aggressive

Living proof of the innate infallibility of the so-called blind hand of the free marketplace

Unrepentant yet deeply concerned, wrist-slapped, but still our models going forward

Whining for subsidies while bribing for reductions in tariffs on their outsourced goods

Retiring to supervise the creation of fictional autobiographies and scam motivational courses

Who are these polished liars promising the better jobs of tomorrow as they offshore us forever?

How is it their compensation skyrockets as they slash wages, jobs, benefits and pensions?

Faceless fearless leaders pulling strings behind the scenes, sage masters of their known universe

When the people grow up chasing endless empty fads

when the citizens have no safe places that they have always known

because all is in the chaos of cheap construction and hourly work migration

they should grow skittish and uneasy

like caribou forced to migrate past packs of hungry wolves

when the people worship only what is new

the children try to invent an entire culture of their own

and then quickly they grow old and confused

and are discarded with a strange distaste for themselves

when the people do not honor the food that they eat

animals live like prisoners and die stripped of their grace

the land is violated by many forms of dirty runoff

yet some still yearn for the simple lilt of missing songbirds

when the country gulps from plastic that it quickly throws to the ground

and its commercials require more thought than its entertainment

its strength is diminished and its future in doubt

yet it is not painful to those dancing hypnotized in a dull throng

when corporate agribusiness controls the food supply

and stock prices guide the stewardship of our sustaining land

the future appears both raggedly hungry and quite filthy to the disaffected

when developers create communities and give them idyllic names

and create streets meant to recall other times

those who are not team players may mournfully intone that

what is no more, and cannot return, will always be the better

when it is cheaper to bulldoze rich farmland for new cheap strip malls

than it is to re-develop shoddily-built and decaying storefronts

some people see the true wisdom

of the invisible hand of capitalism stroking the sacred free marketplace

when home owners speculate on gains from their properties

making improvements only to appeal to prospective buyers

and to enhance their curb appeal

others see the true meaning of our Traditional Family Values shining thru

when the winning candidates always spend more than their rivals

in campaigns all run by sloganizing puppeteers

and corporate sponsors quickly recoup their election investments

people revel in the spiritual experience of the democratic process

when a man is ashamed that his car is too old

and women routinely throw out clothes that they have never worn

consumption remains high enough to support the holy economy

and advertisers have won a great victory for leveraged consumerism

when an honest workman feels that he must be a loser

and is ashamed of his good craft

his country has abandoned purpose and reason

and the image makers have falsely robbed him of his dignity

when the people grow up chasing endless empty fads

ignoring all else as passé or unimportant

it is with a cold and faceless impartiality that

they, too, very quickly pass out of style as well

when the old are disgusted with what the world has become

and are simply glad that time has, at last, passed them by

the young come of age full of unrelated images, each only half-digested

their brains an unsorted compost heap of mass entertainment

when the people do not know what to do with their elders

and they are laid aside and asked to pay to be kept out of sight

when no one knows what these citizens are living for

the society which asks this question can have no decent answer

when expensive dogs are purchased from puppy mills as status symbols

but left out alone in empty fenced yards

before, very soon, to be sent away forever more

children learn the value of commitment and companionship

when the angry young man, once so widely admired,

morphs pathetically into a bitter and tired old fool

his impotent rage becomes boring repetition

and he is quite easily left behind and quickly forgotten

when the people burn bright lights outside their homes

throughout every night of each year

and more is spent on security systems than for reading material

the children grow up coping with implants of ignorance and paranoia

when grown men spend good money having pickup trucks make more noise

though they are too big to park and have no place for groceries

little boys learn what is important though father's never home

growing up tough as nails and dumber than the dirt

when mothers spend their time in knots of vicious gossip

merely aping empty fashion trends

and pursuing shopping as an extreme avocation

no one need wonder why girls do poorly in science and math

when anger, revenge and greed provide the best in workplace motivation

even though the silly mantra of political correctness is regularly invoked

how easy can it be then, once at home with the family

to lay it all aside and be gentle and just, kind, calm and loving

when senior officials, hip-hoppers, movie stars and athletes

turn up their noses at education, science and normal work

while violence, ignorance and crime are portrayed as part of ordinary life

why are we surprised when first offenders cannot read, write or add

when our parents wind up languishing in their own smelly wastes

in institutions staffed by tired drop-outs and illegal immigrants

shortly to be preyed upon by a conglomerated funeral ‘industry’

who would argue that our own lives are not, thereby, greatly diminished

when the most important of all the many government spending items

is how much we can spend on killing other people

while whipping up the public against enemies in the shadows

it becomes clear that the business of war shall prosper, forever more

when the incumbent promises things he could already have delivered

many poorer citizens may still trust him if he seems to be nice,

and spends good money on family images with soothing voices and safe music

while touting moral values but favoring the rich and the incorporated donors

when intelligent people read only pre-digested spin from a for-profit press

it is easier to maintain the consistency and rhythm of the message,

thereby ensuring that the rational will not panic, bolt and run,

while establishing by repetition what seems false upon first impression

when elections are brought to you by corporations to reach financial goals,

none of which include family values or environmental nonsense

and slick firms launch expensive campaigns designed to spin the candidates

who would be surprised if voters are treated as simple target markets

when the credit cards are all maxed out and the houses aren’t worth their loans

and once-cheap imports and outsourced skills are simply unaffordable

when all the strip malls are complete and the entire ecosystem shattered

the people can still sit inside gasless SUVs, communing with their personal saviors