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

What Is True Conservatism?

De-regulating giant financial entities which are driven only by their overpowering greed

Then stepping in with bailouts to produce inflation along with a recession

or instead, keeping a watchful eye upon those prone to selfish and childlike excesses

drilling unproductive wilderness and coastline for our tragicomic SUVs

          or saving some of that resource for later by buying it from others

as we scramble all available resources to gain a sustainable energy independence

subsidizing mass production to mono-crop our forests and our fields

          or carefully tending to the mystic diversity that we owe to the future

silting up streams and choking off salmon with corporate dams and logging

          or minding that watersheds stay clean and intact for future harvests

encouraging corporations to develop filthy aquaculture mass production

          or preserving our clean water and diversity of species

for the unknown needs of generations that might even yet be born

promoting the impersonal short-term, stock price-based corporate agriculture agenda

          or subsidizing the real stewardship of our precious native soils

with the oft-mouthed, constantly trampled values of Traditional Family Farmers

letting teenagers keep having children because it is a god-given right & abortion is a sin

          or licensing would-be parents via stiff examinations

lecturing fourth generation single mothers on the morality of abstinence

          or providing timely family intervention to break this pathetic cycle

incarcerating without tolerance ever more criminals raised without hope

teaching them real crime in prison and then setting them free upon our streets

             or seeking to identify and correct their problems at very early ages

funding local governments through cutthroat sales tax competition

over cheap, unplanned, unsustainable retail and housing development

or setting thoughtful long-term policy and implementing it through taxation

being forced by threat of being viewed as unpatriotically unelectable

to condone spending ever more billions on the military,

to combat a bogeyman who melts away somewhere into dusty, poverty-filled shadows

or investing at home in our own education, environment, agriculture,

energy needs, jobs, national debt and crumbling infrastructure

insisting that might makes right and that god is on our side

          or listening attentively to those considered opinions of

our European allies, who also happen to descend from our own very forefathers

electing professional, multi-generational politicians

who trade on their names and grow rich from their contacts

or promoting the Jeffersonian ideal of timely and limited service

to one's country as a matter of civic duty

tolerating a putrid mass of strangling tax code spaghetti

created by and for parasite lawyers and bloodsucking accountants

or making taxes lucid, reasonable, understandable and fair

opening up more of our forests for corporate timber and the obese on ATVs

          or diligently looking to preserve what little remains for the future

enriching puppet so-called royal families in their fly-plagued desert homes

          or severing all our relations through alternative energy sources

paying conglomerates to brew biofuel using up more energy than it makes

          or incepting grid-connected solar and wind power on every roof

allowing coal burning plants to increase their mountain-top destroying, mercury-laden,

horizon-obscuring, asthma-inducing, cancer-causing emissions

or subsidizing truly clean coal and fast breeder thorium reactor development

while systematically closing the oldest and dirtiest of the plants

making government smaller and ever more responsive

          or creating the largest bureaucracy ever seen by man

under the sacrosanct euphemism known as Homeland Security

subsidizing corporate agriculture while preaching of free trade

          or publicly calling out the bastards who ruin the land

with their fossil water mining, sewage lagoons, pesticides, fertilizer & antibiotic overuse

as they weave elaborate tax scams to increase their bonuses

allowing nightmare mega-scale domestic animal concentration camps

to pollute the country’s water with their foul fecal runoff

or ensuring that food production does not ruin our dwindling water supply

encouraging our companies to send engineering, research and information technology

positions overseas forever by citing the inevitability of global competition

or realizing that such services are imported straight back here

and that any developed nation must provide them for itself

letting faceless executives whose only goal is short term stock prices

set policy and retire inside locked compounds clutching obscene unearned bonuses

or demanding a wisdom and a vision beyond mere grasping business acumen

smiling as corporate leaders walk away rich, righteous and free

leaving us to adjust to the reality of a global standard of poverty

or holding them responsible for the debts they have placed upon our children

ensuring americans that their greatest patriotic duty is simply to keep shopping

and that hypnotized consumption is a fundamentalist value

or extolling the virtues of thrift and financial independence

while setting an example by keeping government spending within reason

creating the largest government deficit in all of mankind’s history

          or cutting back thoughtfully during difficult and trying times

demanding that foreigners buy our probably safe, genetically-modified corporate seed

          or working closely together to try and end the world's growing hunger

telling your allies that they are either with you or against you

          or striving for consensus and working together towards a shared future

refusing to sign a global ban on the sick foolishness of chemical warfare

          or leading the world in such a worthwhile crusade

ignoring greenhouse gases and treaties meant to stem their steady growth

          or pioneering profitable methods to deal with this global problem

relaxing pollution standards for the waters of our lakes and streams

          or making them safe to swim in for both the fish and for our kids

deciding that americans are above the laws of any world court

and applying sanctions to others who might be co-operating

or working together on a judicial system which works for the entire planet

refusing to support the international banning of brutal land mines

and continuing their production and export to one and all

or helping farmers and their children to avoid artificial legs and even worse

withholding funding for agencies providing birth control education

          or giving families in overpopulated lands already full of poverty

the ability to choose wisely, just for themselves

turning our national parks over to overpriced corporate property managers

          or keeping profit margins far away from the places

we have been entrusted to pass on to our future generations

interpreting world population growth as a threat to our national security

and determining to respond by increasing our unsustainable numbers

or working to design a rich and sustainable future

for a smaller and far less destructive human footprint

constructing maximally cheap with minimum environmental concern

          or building green with the aim of creating structures actually meant to last

discarding all wrappers, packaging, newspapers, aluminum and glass

since we paid for them and nobody is paying us not to throw them out

or reusing these things to let our children enjoy them as cheaply as we did

spreading the lie that economic growth continues at high rates forever

and burying generations to come beneath the debt of our tax cuts

or crafting a steady-state model that leaves as much as we enjoy today

for those existing beyond the laughably short quarterly horizon we now foresee

being laid off impersonally by some inhumane organization

as a discretionary expense, to be reduced merely to increase stock valuation

just to win a sickeningly large annual bonus for one’s so-called talents

or co-operatively reducing your salary maybe working part-time for a while,

at a place where you might even envision that there could be a future

         

touting free market worship while striving to build totalitarian oligopolies

and labeling any criticisms as socialist, unpatriotic and simply weak

or evolving capitalism to meet the needs of all humanity

aboard this one small blue space capsule that we simply must learn to share

trying to control fast-evolving pests by broadcasting long-lasting poisons

on food crops being raised to sell to your mothers and their children

or finding ways to control these long-term problems

more safely, cheaply and sustainably within the unforgiving laws of nature

encouraging lame urban cowboys to modify their motorcycles and trucks

to leave even more noise in their wasteful and infantile wakes

or enforcing simple common sense when the freedom to make empty noise

clashes with the right to natural peace and sublime quiet

allowing big media to set the body politic agenda via slick repetition

of stocks, entertainment, sports and government propaganda

mixed with 24 minutes per hour of higher volume commercials

and staged combat debates centered upon vital non-issues

or thoughtfully considering personal and national priorities

in reasoned discussion from a thousand different outlets

building the same tacky strip mall packages and

identical cheap convenience store setups at every new intersection

from border to border at the lowest possible costs

or searching for some kind of vision beyond mere stocks and profits

from some wiser group of men than these negligent but rich so-called leaders

whose legacy is greedy scheming behind closed boardroom doors

spinning, staying on message, gaining traction and shoutingly-managing the issues

          or publicly learning from mistakes, incorporating other points of view

and seeking involvement in quietly ongoing, open and non-poisonous debates

permitting contributory corporations to buy up all the media outlets

to serve up the same vapid, franchised media in every town and city

          or nurturing the plurality in our forgotten motto, 'e pluribus unum'

praising the virtues of democratic elections

while buying them with donations to be paid back with favors

or simply admitting that, under our current system, elections are about the money

and evolving our institutions to reinstate the ideals of the past

scornfully belittling science when it conflicts with well-scripted policies

already bought and paid for by corporate payoffs

or adopting the scientific method for rationally and fairly dealing with many

of our most pressing technical issues

invoking the lie of local control to grant outside developers unlimited power

permitting them to rend without foresight, planning or responsibility

or providing coordinated overviews for states, regions and the nation

to ensure a way of life that might even last a thousand years

counseling third world countries to preserve their so precious ecosystems

after having shattered our own and been proven unwilling to restore it

or providing a reality-based example of the benefits of conservation

and then profitably selling related goods and services to the world

touting the benefits of education while marginalizing scientists and

academia quietly through policy and openly in the corporate media

or respecting the educated as our best model for future progress

and our most precious current human capital

searching out the violent and the mindless in pleasure and entertainment

          or seeking enlightenment in the precious little free time we are granted

before we return to cold ashes and thin dust once again

expressing your true inner self via clothes, houses, cars and expensive vacations

          or searching for meaning through study and contemplation         

never saving and then demanding that government pay for your retirement

          or living within your means and laying out your own golden years far ahead

driving a 300 horsepower 4WD all by yourself an hour to work in a cube every day

          or leaving a smaller footprint on the earth and upon your descendants

issuing signing statements and underfunding enforcement agencies

          or impartially enforcing our laws per constitutional responsibility

paying ever more at toney restaurants until the last trendy seafood species

disappears from every ocean

or having the merest shred of common sense to at least leave

a viable breeding populations intact in the wild

ignoring the anonymous industrial holocaust-style production of your meat

          or consuming with forethought about what goes into your body

and having respect for the sacrifice of these other living beings

eating industrial fast food prepared by low-paid strangers who despise you

          or cooking good food and sharing time at home

with the people who are always there to love and respect you

blindly believing in creationism while harshly scoffing at the infidels

        or structuring your beliefs within a framework of reason and good faith,

sprinkled with a measure of respect for the considered opinions of others

spinning drunkenly from one corporate co-opted fad to another

          or cultivating reasoned and explainable values for living

growing fatter and dumber and being a daily target of ridicule

          or growing older and wiser and providing valued counsel

getting botoxed, dyeing your hair, wearing heavy makeup and too much gold

or trying to come to terms with the end of your, so-far, wasted life

spending every evening flipping channels with your stagnating brain disengaged

          or facing the onrushing void for a moment with an unblinking third eye

Where will we be when all this progress is done?

where will we be when all the forests at last turn into tree farms

and all the jobs have finally been exported

where will we be when corporations build all of the food

and there are no more species to protect from extinction

where will we be when all the districts are properly gerrymandered

and the elections are so much cheaper to pay for

where will we be when our children are full of mercury and lead

and they are bursting with video smarts but empty of education

where will we be when strip malls have sprouted from sea to shining sea

and every brave citizen lives within five miles of a Wal*Mart

where will we be when we import every drop of our oil

but our frightening bombers cannot fly for lack of fuel

where will we be when we are all safe inside the air-conditioning

but the bugs have become immune to the chemicals we are spraying

where will we be when the illegales leave for home

because there are no more jobs that we won’t take for them to do

where will we be when we are permanently downsized just before middle age

and there are no jobs anywhere and we have never saved a penny

where will we be when all our credit card bills come due

but all we want to do is simply to retire and draw out social security

where will we be when Levi's makes every pair of its jeans overseas

and hungry workers down in Mexico lose their jobs to the Chinese

where will we be when all the small plains towns dry up and blow away

and the ConAgra crowd takes over completely as stewards of our land

where will we be when grandsons cannot eat the fish that they catch

and Appalachia has been scraped and flattened for the coal that remains

where will we be when we can't afford new cars or the gas to power them

and our own children sit on the streets in rags with dirty faces

where will we be when our factory farmed fish are full of poisons

and the milk from the mothers that we fight for is laced with PCBs

where will we be when there is no more water for golf in the desert

and the underground aquifer wells make that empty sucking sound

where will we be when the drought just does not stop getting hotter

and industrial crops wither and corporate-owned soils blow away

where will we be when it's all wheelchair and ATV accessible

and our kids beg the conglomerates for temporary jobs at any wages

where will we be when everything we buy, we proudly do not understand

and we do not have the cash to hire someone to fix them

where will we be when we no longer need to save more time

and our lifestyle choices belong to those who manage our bedpans

where will we be when millions contact a fatal influenza at identical malls

and homeland security permits vendors to sell your viewing habits

where will we be when the only real broadcast news is subsidized by the state

and conservation is merely a hobby, smirkingly ignored by those in real power

where will we be when our students finally learn the value of a real education

then realize with growing anger that the good jobs are nowhere to be found

where will we be when global competition pays us all 70 cents an hour

and the world finds itself, at last, in an egalitarian corporate economic balance

where will we be when the educated far outnumber the jobs that remain

and the ignorant and brutal can no longer prosper safely within our midst

where will we be when the next demagogue simplifies all the answers

and how will we avoid a war that kills at least two hundred million

where will we be when all our engineering tasks are outsourced quite routinely

and research and development is quickly farmed out overseas

where will we be when all our clothes are made in foreign lands

and the only things we export are used packaging, corpro-food and raw materials

where will we be when everyone gets the same tiny bite from a fast-shrinking pie

and the corporations at last merge with their partners in government

where will we be when we fall just like the old soviet union

and foreign investors abandon us to our unpayable debts

where will we be when the bills come due and there is no more refinancing

as our own poison dust is carried over us by the hot and drying wind

where will we be when the yellow and brown saviors come to buy our homes

while the european brothers we alienated simply smile politely as we leave

where will we be when we finally rid ourselves of concerns over the biosphere

and we can concentrate on the last of the feasible extractions

where will we be when all the coral reefs bleach out and wash away

and the economic forecast far outweighs our environmental scorecard

where will we be when religions compete freely on a global scale

and the venture capitalists take them public for franchising fees

where will we be when we have little remaining except our nuclear arsenal

and the biological and chemical weapons we have stored in the desert

where will we be when high tech meets those three upon their horses

and we cannot simply point and click again to solve our real problems

where will we be when the red Chinese smile upon us from the moon

and still we let them ship us things built by the slaves we are becoming

where will we be when all the baby boomers morph into doddering botoxed zombies

still demanding more than those before them for doing much less

where will we be when there are no more dolphins to perish as simple tuna by-catch

and the sharks have all been slaughtered to make soup of their fins

where will we be when our wonder drugs do not protect and patients rot away

and the amoral without foresight go forth and genetically modify the world

where will we be when drinking water costs more than rationed gasoline

yet comes in dirty buckets siphoned from contaminated wells

where will we be when the market value of a human life bottoms out once again

while the faithful suffer quietly all of their lives, sustained by a fairytale heaven

where will we be when the conglomerates have finished all their acquisitions

and southern china has no more farm land but lots of empty factories

where will we be when the fix to the genetic modification problem goes awry

and the ultimate solution involves unforeseeable risks and too many trade-offs

where will we be when the Israelis fence the Palestinians into a sandy ghetto

but their loyal soldiers shoot only upon orders from their superiors

where will we be when the Kamchatka tiger leaves no more silent footprints

and his mighty brown bear brother shuffles off into the void as well

where will we be when the songbirds are no longer heard in our backyards

and who would even notice while playing video games upon big screens

where will we be when we realize our food supply is full of poison

and the government cannot blame terrorists for this corporate crime

where will we be when the most heat we can afford barely keeps our pipes from freezing

and we can no longer ignore the heat because there ism more no air-conditioning

where will we be when we create a digital life-form from among all our images

and they take into account the things that we choose to ignore

where will we be when the world realizes your son is not worth ten cents an hour

but their purchases of treasury bonds assumed two hundred dollars per day

where will we be when rodents become a vital part of the food supply

and boiled water is not used simply to make a little tea

where will we be when proud male lions no longer bring down filthy hyenas

and fat men with thinning hair cannot drive their large and loud pickups

where will we be then, it’s pretty easy just to ask right now

and the drunken Inuit watch the polar bears retreat forever along with the ice

Look, We Paid For It, So Shut Up!

We will idle our huge vehicles for hours, just to run the air conditioning for one person

because we have paid for the gasoline and, of course, air is always free

and so will our children pay, with energy shortages, endless record heat and lung diseases

We damn sure can spew unburned diesel into the upturned faces of tiny infants

because this here big old truck is my pride and joy

with no money down, a zero percent APR and small monthly payments

We can rend the life from fields and meadows with our mighty excavators

because we have leveraged this land to build another cloned strip mall

so we’ll just see all those small mammals, little birds and tiny insects later on - in hell

We can throw those greasy fast food wrappers out the windows of our shiny vehicles

because we bought our gory double meat cheese burgers with blessed american dollars

and we wish to be done with our trash in a real and permanent hurry for,

stuffed with hydrogenated fat and supersized on carbs, we will sanctimoniously roll on

We will blithely discard all the aluminum, papers and bottles that might be recycled

because we paid for them, we own them: and now we are done with them

and we will throw them away unless somebody pays us and picks them up

and who are you to tell us about responsibilities to some hazy future?

We drive when we could just as easily walk our fat and lazy asses

because we can afford the price of gasoline

but not the shame of being caught while waddling in the open

Sincerely Yours, Hundreds of pounds of ugly fat stuffed inside 3 tons of wasted resources

We can floodlight our homes and blot out the moon, the planets and the stars

because we mostly pay the electric bill on time every month

and our statement shows no dollar amount for the loss of the Milky Way

and you know what, screw the wacko stargazers and all them newage nut cases

We can blast out our boom boxes in any forest campground

because we paid for these goddamn spaces and now it’s time to party

and our noise is no crime against a nature that we don’t know enough to take any note of

We fling our empty beer cans down whenever they are emptied

For we’re now all half drunk and we started out being stupid anyways

And caring for the environment is for candyasses and pussy faggots

Real men let others worry about cleaning up the messes they leave behind them

We can unabashedly toss half eaten dinners into open-mouthed garbage cans

because we gave out our own good money for all that greasy food

and there will always be a cheap supply from our caring corporate agribusiness providers

We can cram that blue exhaust from our personal watercraft

into the faces of those useless water birds and fucking stupid fish

because it's a whole lot of fun to go fast and to be very loud

and all that oil and smoke in the water will

never come back to haunt our families or our friends

We can shatter the silence and belch out smog from our snowmobiles

because we carried them to the national forest in our loud pickup trucks

and, oooh, ain't it a goddamn shame if it stresses them poor shittin elk

we’re gonna shoot their flea-bitten asses come September, anyhow

We can make new outlaw trails anywhere we want and run amok on all the public lands

because we pay our taxes so we the people actually own the frickin’ countryside

and we’re not yet bored of our expensively-financed, oriental ATVs

we can eat as much steak and hamburgers as we want to pay for

and we like them just as cheap and supersized as they can be

so shoot them up with antibiotics and hormones so they get fatter sooner

and it’s just more liberal bullshit that we are what we eat

and don’t put the debt of cleaning up the feedlots on any balance sheet

We can fit our pickups and Harleys out with expensive and ear-splitting mufflers

Because it’s part of our biblical right to make a hell of a lot of noise

We have this need to let out the little boys still living on the inside

We’re loud and obnoxious, dreaming that we remain defiant ‘til the end

We can bulldoze the ancient prairie, put in inefficient sprinklers

and then plant our fragile bluegrass because we can pay the current water bill

and there are no other costs except what shows up on our statements

We can demand ever more of the disappearing bluefin tuna

and the fishermen will gladly continue to oblige

we will pay the ever-higher prices for their decreasing catch

and when there are no more tuna anywhere to be sold

we will forget about them and the fishermen can go find something else to sell

We can cram ten thousand pitiful, squealing pigs into a concentration camp

and leave them there to poison all the water for miles around

because we bought out the farmers who we ran out of business

and we own the filthy, soulless pigs so we can treat them anyway we wish

We can rend whatever riches lie beneath the land in whatever way we choose

And sell them for a profit based solely on the costs of our extraction

Such expenses should not include stream and hillside restoration

But huge executive bonuses are damn sure a part of doing business

Let’s get more efficient and monocrop the once-vibrant prairies

with half-baked, untested, genetically-altered plants and,

now pour on that toxic elixir to kill the bugs that follow

and pile on the fertilizer and aquifer water to artificially stimulate

and, furthermore, what’s left behind is none of our concern

we own the land and we work it to raise the price of our stock and earn fat bonuses

we can cut taxes and raise spending to help us to buy their ignorant votes

mortgaging the nation’s future on gigantic spending binges

now let’s go kiss some babies dragged up for campaign photo-ops

let’s kiss their future prospects goodbye, too, right up close and streamed in high-definition

We can provide cheap electricity by building massive dams

No point in determining what they do to a river system

Who cares about the sediment, screw those hapless birds, frogs and fish

Drown that rich bottom land, bring on the belching pleasure boats

No extra bills are forthcoming in the mail to our immaculate consumers

We can rend the land for minerals, metals and petroleum

Pretty much as we see fit, for seven cents an acre

Then we can walk away and find another place that might pay off as well

For our government has enshrined our right to gash and run

And the dead streams, denuded land and toxic metal runoff

are not items on our balance sheets and do not affect our stock price

And only a lunatic fringe assert that our children have anything to fear

We will clear cut our forests down to the very stream beds

So as to use our great machinery with utmost productivity

And the silt that kills the trout and salmon costs us nothing

And, you know what? who really needs a riparian habitat, in any case?

The loss of such things we bequeath to the public, without any real cost

Let’s warm up our giant autos for ten minutes on cold mornings

We don’t get a bill for belching clouds of smog into the air

There is no monthly Visa item for pounds of CO2 discharged

We bought the gas and we can burn it in any way that we see fit

And we damned sure don’t want to get chilly on the way to work

Screw your conspiratorial and fuzzy global warming threats

and we don’t have to pay for those purported serious side effects

and you know what else, we really don't give a damn about the growers

and care even less about their countryside or shade-tolerant trees

we paid for our latte and it all ends right here in the comfort of a coffee shop

it’s no problem for us to fragment the ecosphere in any way that we see fit

for we now hold a crookedly-leveraged financed title to the land

and under local control, each of us individually will act as we deem proper

then, like magic, things will work out correctly and, in the end,

the wisdom of the blind economic hand will pass our judgment upon the web of life

just get us those large tiger prawns, wherever it is that they come from

kill off your mangroves and destroy your reefs if that is what it takes

goddamnit we will eat our fill and then drive home in a fat consumptive glow

we have exercised our god-given rights as consumers to put

your environmental future on our maxed-out credit cards

we can throw our execrable cigarette butts down anywhere we choose

we paid good money for them and now that they are finished

they are neither litter nor pollution

but we could care less, even if they were, so pick em up if you want to

after all, our clothes, breath and skin are tainted by their smell

and our lungs are turning blacker and growing weaker, day by day

what really then is the point of conserving resources and recycling

where does that fit in with purposeful business profit planning

and our need for mindless family entertainment

since anyway, what has a stinking polar bear ever done for me?

let us put our faith in a strict interpretation of the folklore from our bible

because we lack the will and courage to even try to think for ourselves

and let us pray for guidance so that we can feel at ease

secure that god is on our side and there can be no mistakes for us to admit

we can go on righteously for there is little to worry over in our present lifestyle

our children should enjoy our living standard for as far as we can see

in our minds there is a fuzzy vision of small town harmony and values

but in control are the evangelicals manipulated by the faceless corporations

You Could Be

Reinventing Ourselves

You could become a mechanical engineer

          but wait, those jobs are going off to India to save money for GE

You could become a financial analyst

          but, christ, those positions have long gone overseas

You could get trained in civil engineering but roads are just roads the world over

and foreigners do the same work without the half your overhead

You could do software programming but you were not born and raised in Bangalore

and Americans are too expensive to work in the trendy new age India

You could get your MBA and go off into management

          but all the lower middle managers got RIF'd and became so-called consultants

or work from somewhere else, far away in different timezones

You could study electrical engineering but unless you get on somewhere in china

it would have to remain just an entertaining hobby

         

You could become a carpenter, but the Mexicans can live on half what you do

8 to an apartment, and they don't even ask for no kind of stinkin benefits

You could become a physicist

          and be laughed at while working at some unrelated and menial task

You could train as a policeman, paramedic or maybe a valiant firefighter

          But, alas, you are too much a hands-off, head-down, pencil neck geek

You could morph into a salesman

          but you are not that type of ruthless, grasping, self-centered swine

You could study to be a production engineer

          Oh, but, that’s right, there are no more factories here

You could learn your biotech and genomes

          but big Pharma can save on R and D in the lands of barefoot people

to then spend more on marketing and their own lavish executive perqs

You could become a professor but why should foreigners come here to study

just to move right on back home where they can find the good jobs now

You could become a doctor competing with immigrants to treat for corporations

your decisions monitored and approved by offshore cost accountants

You could take up the honorable study of the law and learn to hate yourself

          like way too many others chasing ever fewer and even more dishonest dollars

you might become a petroleum geologist and help Exxon search for oil

          but 6 skinny Indians will work for what they would have to pay just you

         

you could bet on computer engineering but the only jobs would be in defense

building more things whose only purpose is death and mass destruction

you could study psychology and work in tech support

          but, oops, your job now exists only in Romania

you could become a mechanic, fixing banker's expensive cars

          but watch out for that foreigner who just agreed

to work without benefits for half as much as you could live on

you could open up a little place to deal in the intimacies of your longtime hobby

          and compete against the Fortune 500 bringing in all their stuff from China

you might become a farmer, to help to feed the people and preserve our soil

competing against faceless corporations receiving massive governmental subsidies

you could become a dentist, personable and well-groomed

          yet how many now can afford 150 bucks for five minutes of your precious time

you could become a plumber, driving an expensively loud and smoky new diesel

          but your customer base is shrinking as their lives are being downsized

you might consider truck driving, if your heart can take the extra weight,

the nicotine and the heavy doses of methamphetamines

you might like to be an accurate and competent staff accountant

          but your job is on computer and further analysis is done in foreign offices

maybe you could become a pure theoretical mathematician

          you will do your job out of love and have no need of real food or money

you could become a priest and help them try to spread their silly nonsense

          god certainly knows they need some kind of help, but you ladies need not apply

you could become a politician if your family has the background

          and your way was paid for at the best of schools

and you will sell out easily and often to those who pay for your elections

you could become an outright criminal if you lack the people skills for sales

or simply sell long-term care insurance to the frightened, sick and elderly

you could be a stock broker, shouting  loud and drinking hard,

          but the pump and dump to chump days may be already over

you could become one of our cadre of noble teachers

          and be laughed at and abused by the worthless offspring of the ignorant

yet not earn enough to be able to raise any children of your own

you could plan a career in nursing to nobly help the sick and wounded

          maybe spend your life working with angry filipinos

changing tubes and cleaning up under the old people rotting in their overpriced beds

you could grow up bagging groceries or working checkout down at WalMart

for these are the steady, good-paying jobs of today…and probably tomorrow

maybe you could study six years to become a pharmacist

then watch your job be put up on the internet

to be done by computers and low-skilled, contract labor

perhaps you aspire to a noble career in journalism

          save up for your plastic surgery, hair implants and reworked teeth

then practice your teleprompter skills in a mirror by the hour

you could train as an airline pilot by bombing primitive peoples into the stone age,

          then work for a low-cost airline earning seniority for many years

trying to stay awake while the computer flies the plane

make a career in financial planning and change your long-term advice every year

and try to take people’s money up front

for telling them to assume risks that you will never share

if you are interested in good old-fashioned public service

          think about a career as a legislative lobbyist

spreading cash, peddling influence and focusing senators on client’s legislation

imagine yourself as a powerful soccer mom,

          you could be chauffeuring tiny celebrities inside a posh mini-van

cultivating reasoned opinions about a world you live apart from

get yourself pregnant before dropping out of high school,

          live like a hoe, then make money like one, too

wind up in jail for a long spell, while your children grow up alone

try your hands at the fine arts or letters

          better learn to suck up to rich old women and gay connoisseurs

or maybe you could get a grant from the national endowment

          just don’t produce anything that’s too liberal for your evangelical congressman