What Hath We Done
This little ditty was inspired by this little slide show.
Blame the Victorians if you must, but it twas never thus, not they, nor the revolutionaries of the twentieth century that given us thus, but we ourselves, that in the blame should lie, as it is truly our appetite for waste and desire for stuff that hath bought us to our knees. The demise of the crafts, and the people within whom we entrusted to create that which we would desire is is our own lack of desire for quality versus quantity. We want more of the same, and lots of stuff that we can claim. We wanted so much those things that to us seemed to say we were rich, when in reality it only made us all the more poor in body, self and same. We have only ourselves to blame, not Walmart, or Target, or Woolworth, or any such barron of worthless junk and greed. These are but the merchants of such, not the buyers, not the providers of the emptiness that is pervasive in the quantity that we own, or at least convince ourselves that we own, as most of our ill gotten wealth is bought on time, and a promise that we will earn this at some point, and if we don't someone from somewhere will protect us from ourselves.
This little poetic bit is just to illustrate a point; we as a people are the ones who are to blame for our own demise. Our society has declined in status while the belief is that each individual has climbed the social ladder. The truth is the social ladder has been reduced by our own lack of vision. There is no social ladder, only a few steps, and try as we might think we try, the truth is we are not ascending but just stair stepping through our pathetic and meaningless lives. We thrive on others pain and joy, and pretend that we could be them, on the screen, living the dream, because we have those same things on our plastic shelves, in our plastic houses, or in our plastic cars. We believe that because we have two cars and two jobs, and two kids, we are on the way up, but we live in a plastic bubble we have purchased and our children will pay for.
Everything has been degraded, from education to our hopes and desires, even our religion has come to reflect our plastic self image. Power to the people, the unwashed masses, whom neither earned nor deserve the accolades they are provisioned. All the while we were busy buying plastic pants and mass produced crap with our children, the wealth was being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The money has always been in the hands of the few, and it always will be thus, because even if you give a peasant a million dollars he or she will always be a peasant, and even if they do own a lot of stuff, none of it would be worth one percent of what it cost. They would have nothing in the end, and they would die penniless and as poor as when they started, with nothing to leave to their children but the check to pick up, where they left off.
When was the last time you remember handing down anything, I mean anything at all. When did you leave anything to your children that was not mass produced crap that would be better replaced than repaired. When was the last time you went to a cobbler to have your shoes repaired? Oh, that's right, you threw them out (maybe), and bought a new pair, or two because they were on sale, buy one pair, get the second pair half off, and you can't pass up such a good deal, considering that two pair are better than one. Is two better than one, perhaps, I prefer to have a nice pair of shoes, and a good pair of boots, that is two pair, and that is the same as having two pairs of nearly the same shoes isn't it. Well yes, there are special shoes, for running, and special shoes for walking, hiking, biking, swimming, sailing and shoveling shit, and even for shoveling shit onto your plates so you can fill that empty pit in your gut that shopping has not fulfilled, nor has your relationships, or your children, or your carreer or anything for that matter, because you have no purpose, beyond shoveling shit, so why buy any more than one pair of shoes.
Oh, but you scream, I work hard for my living, such as it is. And yes you do, oh yes, you shuffle papers, and have earned your paper degree, so you should be rewarded for your effortless struggle to the top of the corporate food chain, yes. Are you so blind to see that your paper is not worth the pulp it was printed upon. Are you so ignorant to realize you have no special knowledge, just the mass produced information that could be obtained through ordinary study. Do you not realize that a business degree is nothing, there is no such thing. Do you fool yourself so completely that you have taken the bait hook, line and sinker, to believe that one such as yourself, with a second rate public education would really have the opportunity to earn a real degree in science, or medicine, or anything, at all. Are you truly that fucking dumb. Or are you just so numb to the reality that sits around you, from the bombardment of ignorance that you will accept whatever is given you, you must be to accept that more is better, and that to get ahead you must shit on your neighbor. And who the fuck am I to espouse such on the lowly peasants such as yourselves. Where is my pedigree, my degree in social sciences (oh my god, do you really believe this crap), or even critical writing? I am not a specialist, I am a man of no particular breeding, but I am an artist, and by that I mean, I know who I am, do you.
Thank you and try to sleep well, oh yea that's right you will, ignorance is bliss.
Peace...
JD
After word... I smoke and drink to much coffee, and this is how you will judge me, by my habits, and by my less than acceptable appearance (my hair is to long, my teeth none to good any more, my eyes a bit to close together, whatever), and I applaud you on your perceptive observation, even if you will fade into dust, a poor pathetic beggar with nothing to show for it, but a mortgage and plastic house full of useless plastic shit that ain't worth the time it takes to throw it in the skiff.
Blame the Victorians if you must, but it twas never thus, not they, nor the revolutionaries of the twentieth century that given us thus, but we ourselves, that in the blame should lie, as it is truly our appetite for waste and desire for stuff that hath bought us to our knees. The demise of the crafts, and the people within whom we entrusted to create that which we would desire is is our own lack of desire for quality versus quantity. We want more of the same, and lots of stuff that we can claim. We wanted so much those things that to us seemed to say we were rich, when in reality it only made us all the more poor in body, self and same. We have only ourselves to blame, not Walmart, or Target, or Woolworth, or any such barron of worthless junk and greed. These are but the merchants of such, not the buyers, not the providers of the emptiness that is pervasive in the quantity that we own, or at least convince ourselves that we own, as most of our ill gotten wealth is bought on time, and a promise that we will earn this at some point, and if we don't someone from somewhere will protect us from ourselves.
This little poetic bit is just to illustrate a point; we as a people are the ones who are to blame for our own demise. Our society has declined in status while the belief is that each individual has climbed the social ladder. The truth is the social ladder has been reduced by our own lack of vision. There is no social ladder, only a few steps, and try as we might think we try, the truth is we are not ascending but just stair stepping through our pathetic and meaningless lives. We thrive on others pain and joy, and pretend that we could be them, on the screen, living the dream, because we have those same things on our plastic shelves, in our plastic houses, or in our plastic cars. We believe that because we have two cars and two jobs, and two kids, we are on the way up, but we live in a plastic bubble we have purchased and our children will pay for.
Everything has been degraded, from education to our hopes and desires, even our religion has come to reflect our plastic self image. Power to the people, the unwashed masses, whom neither earned nor deserve the accolades they are provisioned. All the while we were busy buying plastic pants and mass produced crap with our children, the wealth was being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The money has always been in the hands of the few, and it always will be thus, because even if you give a peasant a million dollars he or she will always be a peasant, and even if they do own a lot of stuff, none of it would be worth one percent of what it cost. They would have nothing in the end, and they would die penniless and as poor as when they started, with nothing to leave to their children but the check to pick up, where they left off.
When was the last time you remember handing down anything, I mean anything at all. When did you leave anything to your children that was not mass produced crap that would be better replaced than repaired. When was the last time you went to a cobbler to have your shoes repaired? Oh, that's right, you threw them out (maybe), and bought a new pair, or two because they were on sale, buy one pair, get the second pair half off, and you can't pass up such a good deal, considering that two pair are better than one. Is two better than one, perhaps, I prefer to have a nice pair of shoes, and a good pair of boots, that is two pair, and that is the same as having two pairs of nearly the same shoes isn't it. Well yes, there are special shoes, for running, and special shoes for walking, hiking, biking, swimming, sailing and shoveling shit, and even for shoveling shit onto your plates so you can fill that empty pit in your gut that shopping has not fulfilled, nor has your relationships, or your children, or your carreer or anything for that matter, because you have no purpose, beyond shoveling shit, so why buy any more than one pair of shoes.
Oh, but you scream, I work hard for my living, such as it is. And yes you do, oh yes, you shuffle papers, and have earned your paper degree, so you should be rewarded for your effortless struggle to the top of the corporate food chain, yes. Are you so blind to see that your paper is not worth the pulp it was printed upon. Are you so ignorant to realize you have no special knowledge, just the mass produced information that could be obtained through ordinary study. Do you not realize that a business degree is nothing, there is no such thing. Do you fool yourself so completely that you have taken the bait hook, line and sinker, to believe that one such as yourself, with a second rate public education would really have the opportunity to earn a real degree in science, or medicine, or anything, at all. Are you truly that fucking dumb. Or are you just so numb to the reality that sits around you, from the bombardment of ignorance that you will accept whatever is given you, you must be to accept that more is better, and that to get ahead you must shit on your neighbor. And who the fuck am I to espouse such on the lowly peasants such as yourselves. Where is my pedigree, my degree in social sciences (oh my god, do you really believe this crap), or even critical writing? I am not a specialist, I am a man of no particular breeding, but I am an artist, and by that I mean, I know who I am, do you.
Thank you and try to sleep well, oh yea that's right you will, ignorance is bliss.
Peace...
JD
After word... I smoke and drink to much coffee, and this is how you will judge me, by my habits, and by my less than acceptable appearance (my hair is to long, my teeth none to good any more, my eyes a bit to close together, whatever), and I applaud you on your perceptive observation, even if you will fade into dust, a poor pathetic beggar with nothing to show for it, but a mortgage and plastic house full of useless plastic shit that ain't worth the time it takes to throw it in the skiff.
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