Ode to MORE! — we Mean “WAR!”
(last revision 04/05/2024)
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.[i]
***
I don’t buy all the propaganda —
“RAH! RAH! RAH!” –
spewed at our Two Minutes Hates.[ii]
***
My stepfather –
a Marine Corps sergeant
who fought in the jungles of Korea,
was an MP in Wiesbaden
in the American-occupied sector
of post-WWII Germany,
and a military lab animal
sent into Ground Zero
after a nuclear bomb had exploded
into a mushroom cloud
over the salt flats of Arizona –
used to say,
“Anytime someone has something
that someone else wants,
there’s gonna be a WAR!”
***
So, what do the billionaires want?
(That’s all that matters.)
What are they thinking
as they wallow
in their cozy lairs,
pushing the buttons
of “our” government officials
who push the buttons?
What is it they want?
Why, they want MORE!
***
The big bankers –
who yank the puppet strings
of presidents and prime ministers –
the big investors,
and big real estate brokers
(those sly, biz-y boas
who are ever squeezing,
harassing,
garnishing,
seizing,
evicting,
bankrupting,
and dis-crediting
the American Dreamers,[iii]
one Yankee Doodle Dandy[iv] at a time;
those insatiable grabbers,
the Twenty-First Century
carpetbaggers[v] and robber barons[vi]
of the World —
and not just of this World,
but of our future World;
that’s in the contract,
which We’ve never seen
and never signed.
Recall:
The only time that Jesus
ever struck out in violence
was when he cast out the peddlers
and overturned the tables
of the moneychangers
and the seats of the dove sellers
who had transformed
the Temple of God
it into “a den of thieves.”[vii]);
***
the big fossil fuel assassins
(who’ve been plundering
our Natural Bounty
and National Treasury,
and committing
premeditated
homicide and ecocide
for one and a half centuries,
as their hired liars
papered over their crimes;
who are now ushering in
the Apocalypse
like so many red Satans
dancing in the red fires of Hell,
motioning to the fools among us
to join them,
as the conflagration rises
and licks at the Earth
and We frantically rush about
with buckets of water,
as they perform the dark rites
to summon that which,
“through a glass, darkly,”[viii]
seems to begin to look like:
our total destruction,
and the setting of the Sun forever,
into the Neo Dark Ages.;[ix]
***
the military-industrial complex,
prison-industrial complex,
and immigrant-industrial complex
(“our” superheroes
who programmed the mercenaries
who assassinated our beloved King Arthur[x]
and the Knights of the Round Table[xi]
and then hunted down
Life,
Liberty,
and the Pursuit of Happiness,[xii]
and locked them up in black sites,[xiii]
where they’ve been torturing them ever since
in a vain attempt to beat out of them:
“WHO SENT YOU?!” and
“WHERE ARE THE OTHER SUBVERSIVES –
FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE[xiv] –
HIDING?!”);
***
the little wizards
of the big propagand-extravaganzas
(We, united
in Brotherhood and Sisterhood,
had fended off the deceptions
of the big bosses for 50 years, until –
like broken-down carnival wizards
hiding behind curtains,
pushing levers, turning dials,
and blowing colored smoke[xv] –
the big media execs started playing
this big propagand-extravaganza
over and over,
like disc jockeys
ordered to make it rise to #1,
as if Goebbels[xvi] himself
had crawled out of
his ignominious grave
and tutored them;
this shiny-façade opera,
written by groveling composers
to flatter the corporate bosses
and military brass,
and mock the government
of the People, of FDR and JFK —
this opera,
blasted like machine-gun fire
into the heads of the People
until it had that glazed-eyed
“some of the People”
who can be fooled “all of the time”[xvii]
singing along with it,
and then a few of the other people,
’til one cold, January day in 1981,
the old wizards rolled out
the big, fat opera singers,
who belted out a big, fat crescendo
at the coronation
of the slickest liar in all the Land:
“ronnie teflon slick,”[xviii]
who was reminiscent of “tricky dick,”[xix]
only taller and … slicker;
and he put his slick tongue to work
like a rattlesnake,
reading from teleprompters
the slickest lies written
since hitler);
***
big biz and big industry
(built by Our Brains
and Our Brawn,
proudly flexed their muscles
from ocean to ocean,
until all the big bosses, on cue,
told us this big lie:
that We,
with our hard-won living wages,
could no longer compete,
because labor was cheap
in Asia and south of the border
and because the World
was shaped like a globe
and had shrunk…
Truth,
elegantly clothed in simplicity,
like the Statue of Liberty,
threw a pitying glance at us
as she gracefully strode by,
carrying a sign that read:
“Every decrease in labor costs [your wages]
equals
an increase in profits [their wages] —
You lose!”)
This reminds me of another thing
my stepfather used to say:
“You have to FIGHT for
EVERY god-damned THING
in this WORLD!”
That is, if you can fight.
But this time,
We were bound and gagged.);
***
the consolidators and homogenators
of Knowledge and Culture
(“Quality only drives up costs
and lowers profits!”
Those scarfers-down and barf-ers-up
of our TV and radio programs,
our newspapers and magazines,
our Film industry,
and our Internet sites;
those vandals of the Arts –
which become ever less artful;
those cannibals of the Humanities –
which become ever less humane;
those micro-managers of Education –
which becomes ever less educational;
and of the Sciences –
of old, for the Greater Good, as:
“That’s one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.”[xx]
morphs into:
“Look at me! Up here in space!
In my own spaceship!
Twenty $Million a ride!”[xxi]);
***
big hospitals, big pharma,
and big insurance
(those dons of healing,
who, in a smoke-filled backroom,
ditched the Rod of Asclepius[xxii]
for the dollar sign,
and the Hippocratic Oath[xxiii]
for an offer We couldn’t refuse:[xxiv]
“Your life savings
for …
your life!”);
***
big ag (Gag!
“There’s no place like home”
anymore
for Dorothy and Toto[xxv] —
not since they kicked
the Auntie Em’s and Uncle Henry’s
off their sweet, little farms
to make way for
their big factory-farms –
where they raise their sad,
half-alive-stock
in animal dungeons –
and their astroturf-farmland –
which is no longer
“your land” and “my land” –
where they water their patented,
genetically-mutilated organisms
with toxic chemicals);
***
big chemicals and biotech
(which subverted the sciences
of Chemistry and Biology
into malevolent arts,
and perverted the Periodic Table
into a malicious alphabet
they use to name their
life-draining and life-taking
compounds and biological concoctions);
***
the big techies
(those trust-fund-baby sharks –
whose hearts go
“Ka-ching! Ka-ching! Ka-ching!” –
who commoditize us,
who strip us of our data,
so they can put it on display
for any fence who’ll pay
to see it,
so they can use it against Us;
who forge ever more elaborate algorithms,
and other shackles of censorship,
so they can tell us
what We can know
and how far We can go;
who spy on us –
who pry open our blinds
with their sticky fingers,
so they can peek and peep at us,
and sell what they steal from us
to “our” overly curious
government officials,
who cloak themselves
and their felonies –
all violations of the Constitution
are felonies –
in such dignified terms as
“Intelligence” and “Security.”);
***
and the big mega-stores
and mega-online-sellers,
with their mega-warehouses
(who knocked off
our friendly, neighborhood stores
and tried to make it look like
death by natural causes;
who made us accomplices
by luring us with shiny deals,
which We –
hunters and gatherers all –
chased in cyberspace
and in their too-brightly-lit,
plastic mega-stores;
where their workers work too hard
and too mechanically
to get their over-work done –
“Every increase in efficiency (our output)
equals
an increase in profits (their income)!” –
and where We rush about
like so many moving parts
in their chintzy machinery,
to get in and out;
and line up like automatons
to scan and bag our purchases –
which We made –
under the watchful eyes
of their theft prevention clerks
at self-checkout,
where robotic voices order us about,
and the totals stress us out,
because they knocked off
their shiny deals
after they knocked off
our friendly, neighborhood stores).
***
This current Epidemic
of kleptocratic
thing-and-power addicts
has its roots in 1963;[xxvi]
obsessions and compulsions
for “vain desires and pursuits”
run rampant in the suites,
and the Fleeced and Skinned-Alive
stagger in the streets
like the wounded on a battlefield;
yet, even Epicurus, in 300 BC,
knew
that We should try to see them
not as being bad people,
but as being sick people —
who do bad things.[xxvii]
***
And We fall,
not like “overripe fruit”
falling into communist hands,
as Khruschev predicted;[xxviii]
but –
from White Picket Fence Lane
to Grand Oake Court
in Everyman’s Town,
and from Park Avenue in the Big Apple
to The Main Street in the City of the Angels –
We fall
like Big Game –
Free, Powerful, Magnificent –
to the squinting eyes
and trembling trigger fingers
of our diminutive stalkers;
who do agree with Nikita on one thing
(on which he’d advised them only jokingly):
“When you are skinning your customers,
you should leave some skin on to heal,
so that you can skin them again.”
***
And We lose
(That’s what We’re supposed to do.),
as We,
in a pitiful state of uninformed-ness
and misinformed-ness,
become more and more enamored
with the wares our assassins ply –
which We made –
and more and more suspicious and spiteful
toward one another;
as We forget what We once knew,
and think that We remember
what they have newly taught us;
as We, with glitter in our eyes,
empty out our purses and pockets
so that We can feel rich for a moment,
our faith in their religion strengthened —
their religion,
which teaches Us that baubles are
“the stuff that dreams are made of.”[xxix]
***
And the more We lose,
the more they sneer at us,
as they cart off their treasure –
which We made –
to faraway caves and bunkers,
where they bury it deep
and hope We’ll never find it.
***
But why?
What is it they really want?!
Don’t they know that
Greed is one of the Seven Deadly Sins?
Aren’t they ashamed
that their speeches and solemn acts
are mere theatre?
Don’t they cringe at themselves
as they’re thinking,
we despise you all!
as they shout from their podiums:
“WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!”
And why do they say “We”?
***
What is it they’re really thinking?
they’re thinking:
War means higher profits,
and fewer People
to have to pretend
to share them with.
they’re thinking:
we’ll lose nothing;
we’re safe and warm
in our cozy lairs.
they’re thinking:
Others will have to suffer –
that’s the nature of war,
as they loudly proclaim:
“War is SWELL! —
we mean ‘HELL!’”
and babble about
Our supreme sacrifices.
***
Yet, there’s one thought
that wipes away
their smug looks
and makes them shudder …
something Goebbels said:
“There will come a day,
when all the lies will collapse
under their own weight,
and truth will again triumph.”
But they wrap themselves up
in the mental consolation that
WAR!…
drowns out that frightening noise
that the TRUTH about us makes;
noise not unlike
the snarling of
an angry Pack of Wolves
getting closer…
closing in —
Oh, GOD! we can smell their BREATH! —
Ah, WAR!…
***
WAR!…
distracts Their indicting eyes
away from us,
and fixes them on the Others:
“the Negroes!”
“the Russkies!”
“the Potato-Eaters!
“the Dagos!”
“the Jews”
“the Coloreds!
“the Krauts!”
“the Reds!”
“the Japs!”
“the Wops!”
“the Frenchies!”
“the Commies!”
“the Pinkoes!”
“the Blacks”
“the Wetbacks!”
“the Gooks!”
“the Chinks!”
“the Ai-ray-nians!”
“the Ai-raqis!”
“the Ay-rabs!”
“the Chinese!”
“the Russians!”
“the Immigrants!”
“Rah! Rah! Rah!”
***
And they’ll bamboozle us,
and keep bamboozling us,
’til We stop boozing on their lies
that keep us doin’ all the losin’,
as they’re thinking:
Good, little, stupid idiots!
So well trained!
So loyal and obedient!
as they proclaim:
“we’re eternally grateful to YOU ALL!
Here, let us give you some medals!”
(Hugs!)
“Now, get out there and FIGHT!
and GET US MORE! —
we mean ‘WIN THIS WAR!’
Die, if you must,
and many of You … sniff … must,
but THIS MEANS MORE! —
we mean ‘WAR!’”
***
“Job well done!
You have not sacrificed in vain,
but for our NAKED PROFITABILITY! —
we mean ‘your SACRED LIBERTY!’
God Bless you ALL!
You are the GREATEST PEOPLE
in the HISTORY OF THE WORLD!”
(Now, please go away.)
***
And We’ll keep doing all the losing,
for them,
so they can have MORE —
but more of What?!
“Why, more of Everything!
Give us more of Everything!
In fact, give us EVERYTHING!
You can have what’s left.”
***
“You see,
we need MORE Than,
so we can be BETTER Than!
And once we have MUCH More Than,
we’ll need it ALL!
Why?… WHY?!
So we can be the BEST!
FOOLS! You can have the rest!”
***
[i] Slogans that the Party uses to brainwash the people in George Orwell’s novel 1984.
[ii] The “Two Minutes Hates” are sessions the people have to go to in George Orwell’s novel 1984, where they’re directed to express their animosity toward whatever nation is the current enemy of the state. At these sessions, the people are directed to work themselves up into a rage and shout hatred at the enemy.
[iii] The American Dreamers dream of living the “American Dream,” meaning doing better than one’s parents’ did in terms of upward economic mobility based on hard work, and achieving such material success as owning a home, sending one’s children to college, and having a comfortable retirement.
[iv] A British, pre-US colonies song, “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” was originally sung by British military officers to mock the poorly dressed, unkempt colonial “Yankees” they served alongside in the French and Indian War. Later, it was used by British soldiers to mock the Revolutionary soldiers, and was altered and adopted by the Revolutionary soldiers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Doodle (accessed 01/16/2024)
[v] The term “carpetbagger” is a pejorative term that was used by Southerners to describe opportunistic Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War. They were thought to have come there to exploit the people of the South, who were economically and politically weak after the war. (Wikipedia, Carpetbagger)
[vi] The term “robber baron” — which combines a criminal element, “robber,” with an aristocratic/oligarchic element, “baron” — was used in the late 19th century to describe wealthy and powerful businesspersons who exploited others to increase their wealth. They typically were seeking to: acquire ownership and control over the country’s natural resources and main industries, gain unethical influence over the people’s elected officials, keep wages and benefits low, establish monopolies and colluding oligopolies in the marketplace in order to raise prices and keep them high, and acquire stock and inflate stock prices. (Wikipedia, Robber baron, industrialist)
[vii] From the Bible. “12. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, 13. And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. (Matthew 21:12–13, King James Version)
[viii] “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12, KJV)
[ix] In the term “Neo-Dark-Ages,” “Neo-” is meant to echo the “Neo-” in the term “Neoliberalism,” a term used to describe the economic philosophy of Milton Friedman and other similar economists, which embraced “trickle-down economics,” and led to current economic crisis in which income and wealth inequality is even more extreme than it was at the height of the Gilded Age, and in which the levels of poverty among the poorest Americans rival those of the Great Depression era.
[x] President John F. Kennedy’s administration is sometimes referred to as “Camelot,” after his widow, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, mentioned in an interview (after his assassination) how it was like Camelot, and how JFK enjoyed listening to the musical Camelot. Camelot evokes impressions of the legend of King Arthur, originally mentioned in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, who is wise, noble, and courageous, and who has loyal, pure, and courageous knights. Together, they fight tremendous battles and triumph to establish and maintain a somewhat utopian society. https://manhattan.institute/article/how-jackie-kennedy-invented-the-camelot-legend-after-jfks-death (accessed 01/16/2024)
[xi] Here, a reference to Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy, and Medger Evers, among so many other progressive leaders who fought for progress in human rights, civil rights, and world peace, who were also assassinated (not to mention all of the progressive leaders who were incarcerated or otherwise blacklisted or silenced) to make way for and stifle opposition to such corrupt leaders as Johnson, Nixon, Bennet, and Kissinger, and other ultra- conservative and ultra-regressive leaders that followed. In addition to ending the program started by JFK’s Executive Order #11110 (which had taken the authority away from the private bankers and the privately owned Federal Reserve to print and lend money at high interest and send the economy into recessions and depressions, and place it back in the U.S. Treasury, as it was originally placed by the founders, which would have eliminated growth in our national debt, as the U.S. Treasury could have printed money for government programs and an expanding economy at zero interest, which theory is supported by monetary theory, and which same kind of order was successfully enacted by President Lincoln to fund the Civil War, with his “greenbacks”), the assassination of JFK led to the full-blown U.S. troop deployment in the War in Vietnam a few month’s later, the prolongment of the Vietnam War by Nixon when he bribed the President of South Vietnam to stay away from the Paris Peace Talks in 1968; Nixon’s War on Drugs and its targeting of young people for arrest and incarceration; the appointment of Lewis Powell, author of the Powell Memo, a guide for the ultra-rich to take control of the nation — in large part, through the takeover of the courts, the media, and the universities — to the Supreme Court, which culminated in Supreme Court decisions that paved the way to the 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizen United, which handed our elections to the billionaire oligarchs. So many other regressive measures followed that would not have had JFK lived to serve out his first term and inevitable second term. These regressive measures led ultimately to the election of the ultra-conservative Ronald Reagan as president in 1980.
[xii] From the Declaration of Independence of 1776: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
[xiii] “A European Union (EU) report adopted on February 14, 2007 … stated the CIA operated 1,245 flights and that it was not possible to contradict evidence or suggestions that secret detention centers where prisoners have been tortured were operated in Poland and Romania.[3][7] After denying the fact for years, Poland confirmed in 2014 that it has hosted black sites.[8]” (Wikipedia, CIA black sites) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_black_sites (accessed 02/25/2024); “Black sites are clandestine detention centres operated by a state where prisoners who have not been charged with a crime are incarcerated without due process or court order, are often mistreated and murdered, and have no recourse to bail.[1][2][3]” (Wikipedia, Black site) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_site (accessed 02/25/ 2024)
[xiv] “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13, NKJV)
[xv] An allusion to the Wizard in the classic film The Wizard of Oz (1939).
[xvi] Referring to Joseph Goebbels, propagandist of the Nazi regime of Germany, who said, “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.” “A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” and “If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.”
[xvii] From Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time; but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
[xviii] According to politicaldictionary.com, “The Teflon president possesses a remarkable ability to deflect criticism, maintain a positive public image, and maintain a strong base of support even when faced with significant challenges or controversies.” The term was coined by Colorado Democratic Representative Pat Schroeder, who, in 1983, was quoted as saying in regard to President Ronald Reagan, “He has been perfecting the Teflon-coated presidency: He sees to it that nothing sticks to him.” https://politicaldictionary.com/words/teflon-president/ (accessed 01/16/2024) There was much criticism of Reagan; however, the mainstream media didn’t give it much coverage. Further, the mainstream media usually portrayed Reagan and his “trickle-down economics” and other policies in a positive, if not laudatory manner.
[xix] “Tricky Dick” was a popular nickname of Richard Nixon, especially after Watertgate.
[xx] Neil Armstrong’s famous words upon becoming the first person to step foot on the moon on July 20, 1969.
[xxi] “Dennis Tito spent a reported $20 million on a ticket to the International Space Station in 2001. … Two rocket company founders, Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos and Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson, both took brief first trips above the atmosphere this summer in their companies’ respective vessels, and defense contractor Jared Isaacman went to orbit for three days in September aboard one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon capsules.” https://slate.com/technology/2021/11/space-billionaires-tourist-astronaut-bezos-branson-shatner.html (accessed 01/16/2024)
[xxii] From the Greek Asclepius, the god of healing and medicine. The “rod of Asclepius” (a staff with a serpent entwined around it, which he carries) is a symbol for medicine and health care, and can be found on ambulances, medical alert bracelets, and so on.
[xxiii] An oath ascribed to Hippocrates (460–370 BC), who is considered to be the founder of medicine, whose basic message is: “Help those who are sick, and at the very least, do no harm to them.”
[xxiv] The actor, Marlon Brando, in his role as Don Vito Corleone in the film The Godfather in 1972, famously said, “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
[xxv] From the classic film The Wizard of Oz (1939).
[xxvi] Reference to November 22, 1963, the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
[xxvii] From Epicurus’ (341–270 BC), “vain desires” and “vain pursuits” are terms the Greek philosopher used to describe the pursuit of wealth and power, which become addictions that cannot be satisfied. According to Epicurus, the chasers of “vain desires” and “vain pursuits” can never achieve “static pleasure,” a state in which one does not experience the feelings of needing or wanting, and one is satisfied and content.
[xxviii] “You Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept communism outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won’t have to fight you. We’ll so weaken your economy until you’ll fall like overripe fruit into our hands.” — Nikita Khrushchev
[xxix] Famous line spoken by Humphrey Bogart in the classic film The Maltese Falcon (1941) in reference to the statue of a falcon made of solid gold set with priceless gemstones and painted over with black enamel to hide its value.