Between Words And Actions

As world leaders pronounce
about the world they want to see,
putting the 'me' into the media 
before an audience that is tailored
by the advertising revenue their words earn,
we should note that whilst speeches
start and stop on television, the wars
that are started by all these words 
take a lot more than mere speech
to stop once the arms are taken up.     

I Read And Write Therefore I Am

Many who claim to 'be victims' in public
have to be careful when making their claim:
they make sure their account seems credible
enough to nullify accusations of slight of word
before any such public slights can be made.

This makes 'the victim' shape the facts
into a taut tautology that, unawares,
becomes a tick box exercise, where the aim
is to miss cliché by a whisker by reminding
the reader of how familiar the familiar is.

Many a rich story starts with an unintended lie
that writer did not recognise it as when they wrote it.
When it becomes the foundation of what is clearly true,
this creates a dilemma that is impossible to undo.
When this applies the well written books by new authors 
lawyers help the publisher to devise a legal sophistry
that smooths over the awkward lie the author's story rest on.

In every life, people live with levels of sophistry
that if they were individually tested and examined
would resist the invitation to honest self examination
-which would only reflect poorly upon them.

So long live true life stories built on lies
-they not only entertain us but they are
the shorthand that we rely on to get by.

Greek And Latin

'Holocaust' and 'television' are both words
that are half Greek and half Latin,
Germany was the first country
in the world to have a national
television broadcasting service,
and to have sets sold nationwide.

I am sure that there are huge numbers
of words that are half one root language,
half another, but how many of them
describe processes that have diminished
the attention spans of whole populations,
along with shrinking their sense
of what is personally moral and humane
as much as The Holocaust and television?    

Great Turn Offs Of Our Time (31)

I remember quoting the phrase 'Drain the swamp'
to describe a change in politics I thought was coming
and I thought was a good idea oh about a dozen years ago.
It seemed a neat way of circumventing a management-speak
on regional politics which I thought was past it's use-by date.

Recently I heard the phrase again, in a different context,
about a politics that I thought that I wanted to see remain.
I thought again, about my former liberal bias/prejudice,
which I once saw as 'inclusive', and still partly do. 

But I realise afresh how much 'language is a virus'
and in the swamp that is modern communication
words are always more dangerous than we think.
 

The Drug Of Lack Of Choice

When telling the truth
becomes the latest tactic
because all the lies
we were taught to believe
are now past their tell by date,
then it is clear and official;
they were a waste of time,
and a was of the life it took
to tell them and have them believed.

After all that waste
do not expect their replacement
to serve any great intent
if we have the energy to listen
we will be too worn down
to act with grit and integrity.

 

Great Turn-Offs Of Our Time (16)

'Cautious optimism' is a popular oxymoron
employed by government officials
when they have to avoid the truth
because it would be too depressing.

Governments will makes statements
that depress their electorates
but only when they need to depress
the right people to the right degree
so that worthy few can feel cheerful.

It would another great turn off in itself
to further describe this calculation as 'spin'
I didn't do that, but you will be spun
when your government demands it. 

Popular Sophistry

Authoritarianism always requires
that the masses misunderstand
how those in power got there
-by mis-selling their way to the top.

Such popular sophistry
is the acme method of power.

The person who understood this most
was the person who repudiated it best,
and is least understood by popular history.

Diogenes lived in a wine jar.
He cornered the market
for his own philosophy
with his through and rank
anti-authoritarian behavior.

Very few people in the modern world
dare to touch the hem of his garment
in the hope of permanent transformation. 

Excuses (1)

In any change of diet, or new regime,
what has to be most firmly tested 
are the reasons which expiate our indulgence,
because they are what make us inconsistent.

Unknown Unknowns

Everyone knows that people lie.
Words like these eases the means
for folks to get their own way,
without being seen to.

What gets lost in the mellee
of half truths that cover the liar
is the hidden depreciation
of what the liar is lying about.

Political Post Modernism

It seems that there is not one democracy
worthy of the name in any nation state
in the world today. But there is choice
-in 'developed countries', we can choose
which corporate oligarchy fronted by
its own tame puppet politician to vote for.

Darkness Compounded

When St Paul wrote in I Corinthians Ch 13 V 12
'for now we see through a glass darkly' we don't know
how much he knew of how he was part of the darkness he wrote about.
Originally The Word was light and life beyond compare.
No more work needed, but man wanted choice.
By creating choice he forced everything to live via language.
Many things died instead.
We do not see words and laws for what they are,
fractured audio shadows, not even echoes,
of the original diversity of life.
To hear the Originating Ripple Of Life
our minds have to be silenced. Even now
if we saw beyond ourselves, then we would still be blind guides.
Words are what keep us alive in our darkness of words.

A Tax On Words

Addictions are contingent on appetites,
mass production, and issues around
consent vs taboo.
And finally within Capitalism addictions rest
the respectability of corporate profit.
But the oldest and purest world addiction
 is still words, which as lies became legion,
They console us through philosophy and religion.
In the cacophony of the present day
would a tax on words become censorship? Or honesty?