Empire-The Ultimate Opiate Of All

Many reading this blog
will be familiar with the history
of that shifty thing, The British Empire,
including the so called 'Opium Wars' (1839-42)
where China wanted to sell Britain tea, silk
and porcelain in exchange for silver,
but, via colonised India, the British wanted to pay
China in smuggled opium, which had been
a ready and open market for a very long time.

Such habits have not gone away,
indeed in the era of synthetic drugs
new temptations towards addiction
and death are being refined every day.

But they now come more from a strong China
to a weak UK much more than they did 185 years ago
and the British press has trouble keeping track of it all.

No Place To Hide When We Need It Most

When humiliation strikes us
it takes us by surprise,
which is why resisting
being overwhelmed by it
proves so hard.

When we have no place to hide
-least of all inside ourselves-
it strikes and hurts us the hardest. 

The Emperors Old Clothes

Any society that is deaf to its whistle blowers,
sidelines it's prophets and shoots disagreeable messengers
in the foot, out of mere loyalty to the present oligarchy
is sowing the weeds of its own demise.
For as long as the regime enjoys being sold
as the emperors new clothes,
it makes every day the emperor's birthday.
Belief in the party is contingent on flattery of him,
relying on his telling lies in plain sight to the whole
wide world as he nakedly presses his suite
on his followers.

What will happen when the emperor loses office?
When he has to put on his old ordinary clothing?
Power will affect its holders, and is rarely kind
to those who, having clung to office, leave it behind.