The Difference In Rates Of Work

Is shown less by notices of who is at work,
more by work that gets done unnoticed.

The Art Of Seeing

Everyone looks at the world their own way.

Those who believe in, and practice, art
embed how they see into their vote,
but their creativity is much wider
than any view they might have of Political Parties.

Cynicism, depression and nihilism
will all narrow how we see and what we make
and they will further reduce what we see,
making it much less than it could be.

Even with our vision narrowed
we get our X's worth with our vote,
albeit in inverse proportion to our optimism
whilst leave us with little to say to explain our choice.

Anti-social Mobility

I have never liked mobile phones
Oh, they are fine for telling a friend
that you are coming to see them
whilst you are on public transport,
so that can prepare to meet you.

But with so many bells and whistles
they turn their users into teenagers
who live as if their whole world
has become their gaming arcade.

In the distant past penny arcades
were distinct physical spaces
which were often said to be
'Immoral and a waste of money'
by possessive and hard pressed parents,
unappreciative of how the children
improved their reflexes that way.

The digital arcade that is the Iphone
comes with parental approval,
night and day it lets parents know
where their offspring are
if not what they are doing.

Do the parents also approve
of the diminished attention span?
The displacement activity of having
to look at it and touch the phone so often?
Do they approve of the text speak
which does for written speech
what teenagers do when they mumble?
Where does the not wearing a watch
or knowing how to read a map leave people?

And none of the above even begins to explain
the one sided communications that is sexting....

An Old Notice

But one worth repeating given how often fears arise.

Targets

are what governments take arms against
via radio and television when the citizens
they supposedly serve 'demand action'
-that is they press The Press to renew
the good news about how the statistics
for everyday life are constantly improving.

Little do many citizens realise
that as the subject of these statistics
what the numbers say is about them
and they are the actual government target.

The government don't want more jobs
or for ordinary people to actually live better.
All they want is for the statistics that by law
they have to release to be more effectively divorced
from the reality they are meant to represent. 

Who Enjoys Being Bored?

I half admire the froth that the moralisers
work themselves into as they condemn porn.
But my other half  is always disappointed
when  these moralisers don't condemn
their own ubiquity and overselling
to make themselves more consistent.

The consumption of porn is not,
as many high moralists propose,
always worth condemning in itself.
though the creation of it might be.

Those that view sexual images
are damned by their viewing
of images which do not renew
themselves with repetition,
but make the hope of renewal
a strong  part of their draw.

The surest way to stop viewing porn
is to see the viewing of it as live proof
of high levels of boredom
and damn the lack of engagement with other,
more nuanced and mutual, interests
-sufficient to make their creativity self evident.

   

The Matter Of The Heart

When ever I have heard the word 'heart'
used in a news bulletin I have known
before I have heard the reports
that they will miss the point
of what was meant to be reported.