Homo Psifoforos*

In 2024 a figure approaching a quarter
of the population of the world will be offered
the latest chance to vote for a government.
Two billion voters will be going to the polls
to choose what their media will predict to be
a new and more vigorous government.

These voters hope to be able to trust
in certain basics for a successful vote
the reliability of the electoral register,
fair regulations for being able to vote,
and most of all, that the public can rely
on the votes being cast being accurately counted.

The media noise of cliches and slogans
doing battle for the voters attention span
is a given that those voting can rely upon.

Even when they know what to trust,
the noise of isms fighting each other
to be claimed by voters is just terrible.
Though it is not quite as much of a racket 
as the purest authoritarian propaganda.

That noise is something that no amount of lessons
in civics and civilisation can ever counter,
because when 'freedom' means we are free
to share only in cliche, the weakness
of our  freedom is laid bare to all.

But if by some miracle, enough scales
fall from enough voters minds for them
to recognise how they have been mis-sold
their new government, then how many of them
will find the means to protest in non-cliched terms?

When slogans sell us our values
we are the last to recognise
how they reverse the situation
of how it we are sold to them.
For repeating them, we become
the cliches that we are sold to. 

We sold them our ears with our listening.... 

*Greek for voter