The Plague On All Our Houses

Politics has always been a partisan business,
that divides much more than it unites.

Good fortune favours those who control the divisions,
making their lives comfortable and profitable,
leaving their more divided enemies worse off
in a wasteland, apparently, of their own making.

Weakened economies can work in a similar way,
rewarding the 1% and leaving the 99 % to struggle.

But with economic weakness, political division
is harder to control. With money getting tighter
so the rewards for limited political unity reduce,
putting a double edge to our sense of decline.

One edge is power, the other is money
and both sides are presently blunted instruments.