Stone Riley's Blog: Stone Riley's Shoebox - Posts Tagged "empire"
Our Imperial War Machine
(A song lyric on April 9th 2017)
Our imperial war machine is full of stupid people doing stupid things, this explaining why we have been losing all these wars for all these years and begging us to ask which of these failures will at last destroy America.
Of course we might look deeper for the reasons. Did the Babylonian Empire fall to the Assyrians just like this? Or does Caesar in his Chronicles offer better explanations? Or Shakespeare in Macbeth? But really: Why are so many stupid people here among us given the ability of doing horrid things? So really: We Americans might try looking in a mirror, and blink our eyes to come awake.
We have not loved enough; we only recently became a post-slavery society. Or not even that; In fact, our Constitution still has slavery ascribed as punishment for crime and so it is ascribed, a thousand times per day, and crimes invented for the purpose. So in this habit we regard the world: We claim “white” and claim God loves our “white” so we must kill to keep reality away, and we must fear so as to kill – quite like the overseer, shotgun loaded on his lap and trembling alone all night because the “darkies” sing beneath the moon – and such are we.
We have not loved enough; the soldier trembling in his bunk paralyzed with horrors while the general, worlds away, smiles and drinks and prays with congressmen. No care has he for the exploding packages and rapidly repeating bullets. The world has thrown away its Age Of Empires; nowadays, out to the furthest edges of the world, the last remaining swords and spears have been traded in for the exploding packages and rapidly repeating bullets. The general, worlds away, prays for another star sewn to his hat and throws the soldier's soul onto the gaming table.
We have not loved enough; money does not love us back. Money is, you know, a fantasy addictive substance yet some misadapted instinct in us shouts that it is very beautiful and very real. Still, it does not matter how you pet and preen it, with whatever artistry you earn it, nor how generously you scatter crumbs of it before the poor, nor however many dirty losers you may smash deservedly into the dust, you will never have enough. In these decades now the owners of our country fantasize they own the world and they are running mad with money lust. We admire and follow.
We have not loved enough; we rape our Holy Mother Earth. No words come to my lips for this; my heart is stopped with grief. ...[ an extensive musical passage here ]... But only this: We rape our children and our children's children as a strategy of rapine war.
Our imperial war machine is full of stupid people doing stupid things and we allow it. We let them steal our money for it. We enslave our minds and hearts and souls to them in trade for thrilling lies and blingy trinkets. We hate when hate is on the bill of fare their server hands us. We do not ask which of these stupid wars will kill us.
Or perhaps we will awake in time.
Our imperial war machine is full of stupid people doing stupid things, this explaining why we have been losing all these wars for all these years and begging us to ask which of these failures will at last destroy America.
Of course we might look deeper for the reasons. Did the Babylonian Empire fall to the Assyrians just like this? Or does Caesar in his Chronicles offer better explanations? Or Shakespeare in Macbeth? But really: Why are so many stupid people here among us given the ability of doing horrid things? So really: We Americans might try looking in a mirror, and blink our eyes to come awake.
We have not loved enough; we only recently became a post-slavery society. Or not even that; In fact, our Constitution still has slavery ascribed as punishment for crime and so it is ascribed, a thousand times per day, and crimes invented for the purpose. So in this habit we regard the world: We claim “white” and claim God loves our “white” so we must kill to keep reality away, and we must fear so as to kill – quite like the overseer, shotgun loaded on his lap and trembling alone all night because the “darkies” sing beneath the moon – and such are we.
We have not loved enough; the soldier trembling in his bunk paralyzed with horrors while the general, worlds away, smiles and drinks and prays with congressmen. No care has he for the exploding packages and rapidly repeating bullets. The world has thrown away its Age Of Empires; nowadays, out to the furthest edges of the world, the last remaining swords and spears have been traded in for the exploding packages and rapidly repeating bullets. The general, worlds away, prays for another star sewn to his hat and throws the soldier's soul onto the gaming table.
We have not loved enough; money does not love us back. Money is, you know, a fantasy addictive substance yet some misadapted instinct in us shouts that it is very beautiful and very real. Still, it does not matter how you pet and preen it, with whatever artistry you earn it, nor how generously you scatter crumbs of it before the poor, nor however many dirty losers you may smash deservedly into the dust, you will never have enough. In these decades now the owners of our country fantasize they own the world and they are running mad with money lust. We admire and follow.
We have not loved enough; we rape our Holy Mother Earth. No words come to my lips for this; my heart is stopped with grief. ...[ an extensive musical passage here ]... But only this: We rape our children and our children's children as a strategy of rapine war.
Our imperial war machine is full of stupid people doing stupid things and we allow it. We let them steal our money for it. We enslave our minds and hearts and souls to them in trade for thrilling lies and blingy trinkets. We hate when hate is on the bill of fare their server hands us. We do not ask which of these stupid wars will kill us.
Or perhaps we will awake in time.
Stone Riley's Shoebox
A poet writing essays. Why the title? You know you keep a large size shoe box with all those creative ideas and suchlike stuff scribbled on the back of electric bill envelopes?
- Stone Riley's profile
- 13 followers
