Simple Techno-Peasants

they tell me what to long for, twenty-four minutes every hour

through my radio and tv, from billboards, in the paper and online as well as on my cell

pounding it constantly and far too obviously into the holes that they have drilled into my head

and though I knowingly laugh and nod, I just keep on buying, anyway

they tell me that they only provide the things I kept on saying I always wanted

based of course, just upon, the high-margin items they chose to show me -

wrapped colorfully in the clever sloganeering of those very slick campaigns:

wasteful but high-profit vehicles designed not to last and shoddily produced

low-risk ironclad leasing deals crafted upon sticky financial fly paper

lifestyle enhancing drugs more expensive to market than to research

costly and unproven supplements fortified with imaginary claims

foods full of salt and sugar, greasy fats, artificial colorings and chemical preservatives

their allies place such products in the formulaic action movies that they feed us

these epics I watch in the places that are owned by their close associates

or they tie them in each month with fast food deal or some pre-paid sports championship

and I commit another plot to memory for bright regurgitation among acquaintances

each and every store in those disposable malls wherein,

I first experience the chaotic bits of meaning they have designed for my life

is owned by the faceless, absent multi-nationalists,

and staffed by the marginalized, the bored and the permanently disaffected

each and every consumer move I make carefully monitored and recorded

by greedy and voyeuristic, high-commission marketeers

and what little thoughts I actually produce are but simply feedback

produced only from the steady stream of nonsense that they feed me

the single mothers cannot nurture their amoral, bastard children

because their own mothers never learned these basic skills

before the childhoods of their own parents ended far too prematurely

in a cycle that now seems to us, as old and natural as time itself

my neighborhood resembles the poultry compounds built by agribusiness

my city like their stinking feedlots, my house identical to the other sties

I move about upon the filth I create in line with the entire diarrheic flock

for only so long as I am capable of working long hours and spending too quickly

I mass together in those chattering prairie dog cubicle colonies,

a piece of voluntary veal, happily lashed down inside my little pen

every day my fashion statement requiring much more thought

than I ever give to the filthy mess I help create

through the commonplace acts of my humble faith-based life

I claim to work so hard to pay off all the debts,

motivated by needs that were artificially induced,

that my relaxation is only found in front of huge TV screens,

thinking very little and moving even less

too unaware to know that fast food kills, or that hot drinks must surely burn

that tobacco causes cancer, or sitting on my ass must make me rot

I should hire a lawyer to go find someone to sue for me,

so that I can pay off all these debts for which there’s nothing left to show

too full of fairytale images implanted by a vampire media

too wedded to the status quo, too tightly bound to manufactured traditions

and the guilt that is such a vital part of their merchant's holidays

to assess or even comprehend the waste produced simply by my existence

and finally as I lay in my own toxic byproducts and listen as I wheeze,

watched over by bored and careless immigrant strangers

being paid by merged and downsized medical conglomerates,

I receive the very best care that my remaining money

and a corporate decision-making team can provide

then it's off to chain-store funeral parlors staffed by those

who care as much as I once did about the boring jobs that they do

selling themes to suit the lifestyle that I am now departing

preying upon my family’s grief using the leverage of their guilt

The Tao Of Our Demise

 “When the palace is magnificent, the fields are filled with weeds, and the granaries are empty. ” ― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

when the winning candidate always spends the most, buying up the votes

people see the arranged marriage of free enterprise to the democratic process

thusly, in relation to their own humble way of living,

do they learn to accept the ultimate power of the almighty dollar

when the dealmakers gain too much influence

the mass of people grow uneasy

they sense the dissipation of their masters

as horses smell the impending storm upon the wind

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

because all is in the chaos of construction and migration

they grow skittish and unruly

like wild herding animals near a raging fire

when the people litter carelessly, having no connection to the land

their feeling for the Tao is certainly fouled as well

but during those briefest moments before the crash

any significance is lost, in the noise and confusion

when one alone stoops to pick up anothers’ litter

it is a hard thing to do

for plastic trash far outlasts our bones

as well as any possible thought behind our actions

when the people do not honor the food that they eat

animals live like prisoners and die robbed of their grace

and the land where they are fattened is polluted by their runoff

yet some will still be straining to hear sounds of missing songbirds

when the frogs are disappearing and growing extra legs

parents study their children with extra care:

arms unable to protect,

brains unwilling to accept

when a country takes its food shrink-wrapped tight in plastic,

which is thoughtlessly and immediately discarded

and its commercials require more thinking than its paid infotainment

its strength is thus diminished and its future is in doubt

yet this is not painful to those who heave mindlessly within the throng

when the children learn to unwrap all gifts with an amazing speed,

then consume, discard and walk away without a thought

it should not be long before they absorb the truth that

they, too, are surely, to be shortly cast aside

when the people worship only what is new

their offspring try to invent an entire culture on their own

but quickly they grow old and must blame it all upon themselves

when the country merely follows the latest in manufactured fads

its cities cannot last

and its old have no roads to travel

and the young have no one that they can turn to

when it is common knowledge that the old are of no use

the young and beautiful, nonetheless, cannot see

their own lives must also very quickly end in the same purposeless emptiness

when the people are always far too busy

with trivial tasks that they must soon forget

and in-depth news is unimportant and history is unlearned

their rush is towards a future filled with old mistakes

when people reach the end of life in such a place as this

there is a sense that the road where they have traveled

was not a winding path leading to a peaceful destination

but an endless superhighway where they've broken down for good

when tourism has become a simple extractive industry

natural beauty becomes a resource to be efficiently exploited

condos and strip malls and cheap plastic icons sprout up very quickly

until the magic is depleted and the workers move away

when the country imports poor and ignorant, young human beings

to do work considered to be too menial for real citizens

the dignity of labor is never learned by its children

and empty media sales values are all that they retain

when the ones that we listen to

we consider to be at least halfway insane

we have forced our lives into making sense

by believing far more than we try to understand

when people ask what a tiger

has ever done for them

it is easy to internalize that

we require no major course corrections

when endless sprawl and traffic jams

are considered simply as the norm

it makes real sense that one more bit of litter

does not matter anywhere, anymore

when jobs and consumption, spoiled children and entertainment

guide all of our blurry actions

then appear the gaping inconsistencies found in our thinking

that guide this accelerating rush towards deserved self-extinction

when an education is just for loosers

and getting rich by any means is good

we have no reason to be surprised

by corporate fraud and collusion

or roving gangs of illiterate and amoral youth

when sex is used to sell everything from

cat food to car parts

newspapers still report that our brave police righteously arrest

women who must sell themselves to feed their fatherless children

when alcohol destroys the lives

of millions every year

beer distributors grow rich and become civic leaders

while pot smokers passively go to jail and rot

when black men go to prison for years

for stealing a car or selling a hit of meth

mealy-mouthed, pale white corporate parasites

get away Scot-free for ruining countless lives and stealing millions

when we say we still believe that

all men are created equal

the people watch as we rush in military aid

to those who live where coveted resources still pertain

when highly skilled positions are all moved away from our shores

and Wal*Mart wires our hard-earned money to foreign bank accounts:

where will the skilled illegales,

who do the real work that we once understood,

find jobs in the bright future of this, our glorious land?

when the scientists and engineers,

craftsmen and computer coders

are all outsourced and only the ignorant and lazy majority remains

loyal subjects pause to ask: who will hook up the lights for me?

when the oil is all sucked down

and the Arabs ride camels back to their fly-ridden sheikdoms

and all the motorized wheels stop their turning

our sacred mommies will puzzle over getting the kids to the mall

when actors and the grandsons of politicians get elected

and money buys the office

some ask: why not just count the contributions raised

instead of bothering to vote?

when city governments compete for destination shopping centers

using new sales taxes to finance their ever-more bloated budgets

and more houses mean more property taxes for their counties to spend

citizens observe as these trusted public servants

build our legacy for the future under the holy rubric of local control

when the people view all foreigners as simple, stupid and irrelevant

and the measure of a nation is taken through a gunsight

there is no contradiction that your clothing and electronics come from china

your cars from japan and your computers are controlled from india

when our leaders pray for guidance in making important state decisions

and terrorist enemies invoke their own gods in support of holy jihad

all those of franchised faith heed the calls to prayer in peace,

secure in the knowledge that their own one true god will not ever forsake them

when the people scoff as fuzzy-thinking tree-huggers try to run amok

and see that their plans are too expensive and will cost too many jobs,

yet provide little value in their own search for exciting entertainment,

then has their society been divorced from the web of life that sustained it

when the children realize that they were raised up to be as ignorant as vegetables

and that all the best resources have been consumed,

while fouling and contaminating the majority of nature to nurture them,

they can sigh while carrying firewood and water barefoot, but still faithful

when political correctness yields gains for passive-aggressive lampreys

note clearly that the weak and submissive have not been advanced

yet the strong, the independent and the productive see once again

the fact that their labors only benefit those truly glib and venal suck-ups

when the evangelicals rule the scientists

while their children are paused in violent video games to take their meds

the corporations set the agenda based upon their short term needs

as all the merry little dancers skip about in this rapidly advancing twilight

Flag-Waving Nationalists

Self-sacrificing petroleum patriots offer to brave so-called arctic wastelands

          to harvest the oil beneath its unproductive surface

This to help us to gain our vital energy independence and for export, as well

Drilling for god and country they can bring us a few sips

          to be guzzled and forgotten on one of our many wasteful, unnecessary trips

and take away forever anyone's chances

          to ever see one more of the few remaining bits of unspoiled habitat

Wise patriots tell us of our duty to consume

          and to ride in ever larger vehicles to the newest malls

and of the moral value of imported plastic decal flags upon our foreign cars

Caring patriots protect our economy from junk scientific theories

          Knowing conservation is simply a lifestyle choice, much like being gay

Their wisdom protects us from expensive action until all the facts are in

          They nobly save us money and jobs from that liberal plot

they have recast as climate change

Industry-oriented patriotic lobbyists draft policy with wise company executives

          Making sure to grease the skids of progress with cash contributions

Thus do we move forward in this land of faith-based democracy

          By-invitation-only, laboring in secret behind safely closed and soundproof doors

Practical patriots discern the nonsense in scientific discourse

          And lead the way in discrediting studies counter to their policies

using the twin lodestones of moral beliefs and campaign donations

          Framing the discourse of scientific research as a political debate

Helping our dumbed-down people to grasp the complex issues that we face

Morally focused patriots justify their actions with their faith

          Having god beside them on the podium grants them an otherwise-lacking inner strength

enabling them to distinguish black from white by casting out the gray

          Leaving them with unshakeable faith in the righteousness of their cause

Pontificating patriots should be listened to as they describe our many enemies

          Never asking us to examine our own hallowed lifestyles

Never questioning the correctness of the great causes which we champion

Militarily-oriented patriots ensure we are ready for overwhelming pre-emptive defense

          Annually stoking the war machine with ever-increasing billions

Ready to defend shopping malls against the incoming missiles

          Unable to capture disheveled ragheads in dirty clothes and sandals living in caves

Perceptive patriots help us to discern the truth from all the lies

          the right thing from devilish left-wing deception,

The righteousness of the measured and true course that we follow

          from the godless rhetoric of the heathen foreign idolaters

Great patriots, after consulting their moral compasses, inform us that

          we are either with them or, at our own great peril, against them

and that God blesses our lofty moral rectitude as he smiles down upon us

Responsible patriots trip over each other adopting tougher stances

          Each boasting how they will spend more money to kill and to destroy

Pumping up the bogeyman who wants to eat the children in your homes

          And exalting a ‘Defense’ budget greater than the entire world combined

True patriots free up our natural resources for holy commercial development

          protecting us from the evils of a pernicious creeping socialism

Let us thank them for the steadfast nature of this selfless vigilance

Larger than life patriots smile down upon us from all forms of the media,

          Guaranteed a place in our collective heart

Promoted by those wise contributing conglomerates

who provide all the information a good society should ever need

Discredited patriots no longer play roles in our wondrous progress

          Their actions erased from soundbite media history

At least until their party swings into power once again

Patriotic analytical wonks tell us that business profitability is increased

          and prices lowered by cutting benefits and outsourcing jobs overseas

while, at the same time, arguing just as strongly, it appears

          that increasing energy efficiency and improving conservation

are simply non-factors with regards to the economy of our great society

Corporate patriots help steer the ship of state

          Bravely offshoring ingredients and keeping wages low

Signing memoranda sending research and production overseas

          Stoutly maintaining the hallowed nature of free enterprise

by pumping up the price of their stock for yet another whole quarter

          thus ensuring more criminally-unearned multi-million dollar bonuses

Down home patriots drive loud pickups and watch NASCAR on TV

          Take their lessons from the bible and don’t read too goddamn much

They defend their rights to ignorance and a share of our forests

          They responsibly vote for those who raised their taxes,

helped un-insure them and approved sending their jobs far away