What a country!
The best country in the world!
God’s country!
Jingoism
Nationalism
Patriotism
We shout this nonsense to the wind
Reinforcing imaginary lines drawn by vested interests
Just like pro sports inventing hollow hometown fervor
With hired guns from far away
Lured to your town for higher pay
Fanning the frantic madness of beersoaked youths
And middle aged dreamers
Who distractedly fall for sequined circus charms
And acrobatic displays of impossible prowess
When they are dissected on the jumbotron
Everyone becomes a gladiator vicariously
Forgetting that they’ve paid for the excess excessively
Not just money
Time and effort and emotional investment
That’s been shifted from other possibilities
It’s a false reality
Just like nation states are a false reality
Let’s visit one of those overused cliché images of earth from outer space
No lines
There are no borders to be seen from up high
Countries are just ideas
Borders carve up territories for overlords
Becoming fences to keep us in
What significance do borders have for ravens or salmon or grizzlies
Not very much
Yet for us, overmuch
We yield our sovereignty to the imagination of colonizers
We let the oligarchy herd us into feedlots of junkfood and unreality TV
Anaesthetized against the trauma of truth
The truth that we are prisoners paying for the privilege of a fiction
Locking ourselves in
Turning away from any escape
Because we’ve been French kissing fear
Forgetting last night night’s rape
And the one yet to come today
It’s all personal when it comes down to it
There are no real lines
Carving up truth
David Trudel © 2013
Excellent! I almost passed it when I saw the first few lines, but quickly realized your point. As long as we are all adversaries, we’re easier to control. Keep on keepin’ on, David!! 🙂
Thanks so much for the kind words Sarah!