American Narrative: Controlling the people through story

I’ve been thinking a lot about some things that I think are wrong in this country. I know, I know; it’s a long list. 

The thing is I think there are several “myths” we take as truths in this country. Whether they are designed and put in place by people in power or merely a byproduct of a sort of social ecosystem (where certain ideas sustain and feed other ideas and thereby maintain order by keeping people complacent) I do not know.

For example, corporations have a ton (at least a few billion if not more) riding on the idea that unions are the enemy of workers. That paying union dues is the thing that keeps laborers’ paychecks low. This is not consistent with truth.

There is the idea that taxes are similar to union dues. Or that they are theft. This is absolutely a stunning mischaracterization. Granted, many taxes could be argued as theft in their current form, but this is due to where those dollars end up going rather than the fact they are taken: When most of our tax dollars go to support endless wars, corporate subsidies, and tax breaks for the wealthy, there really isn’t any revenue left for education, food stamps, or collective social programs. In a way, America is laundering money to war profiteers, and they’re making a killing.

The last myth before I post this poem is the idea of a zero sum game. This basically states that if one person is winning, then another must necessarily be losing. This is not true, but it feels like it is. This is not true, but it forces people to see society as enemies rather than contributors, as competitors rather than facilitators. It’s damaging and unhealthy. The following poem talks about presenting the idea of people winning just enough to not stake what they have on any sort of revolution. The more we fight each other, though, the less energy we have to tackle the real problems.

Keep It Consistent

Change isn’t necessary

As long as comfort remains consistent

And comfort comes too easily

When complacency replaces care.

In order to keep rebellion to a minimum,

Make people

Just happy enough

That they will be afraid to lose

What they could have had

If only they had kept quiet.

Convince them

That everyone else

Is born with hooked teeth

And sticky hands

That the other people around them will be unable

To do anything

Except attempt to take what’s yours —

Convince them

That their greed

Is just a reflection

From everyone else’s eyes —

That this greed wasn’t theirs to begin with,

That keeping the consistency is less trouble

Than the heartbreak of change

Besides

The responsibility resides

With the ones

Who broke the system

The ones who were there before they were born.

They are bystanders

In a world where cops

Are nothing but trigger fingers

Looking for an excuse to get itchy

They are sheep in a world full of wolves

And always on the lookout for zippers peaking from underneath wool

Remind them

It’s a dog eat dog world

But leave out the part

That dogs don’t each other

Until people place bets on them —

Don’t let them notice

That there’s a billion dollar bet riding

On our ability to see

Consistency

As a form of soft control —

Create unhealthy habits

Then call it “trying to survive”

Say that being alone and depressed

Is better than being

With other people and awkward

Tell them that perfection is the perquisite for love

So that being loved

Becomes an impossible pursuit

Don’t let them see that faults

Are something that can make the earth quake

Don’t let them hear  

how water laughs

Even as it carves its path through granite

Don’t let them find out

That the glass-crack crash of thunder

Has nothing on the brilliant flash that blast it into being

Make sure they don’t learn their history

So that they’ll be doomed to repeat it

Cackle when they finally realize

They are all wearing wool

Celebrate

That they only see each other’s teeth

Instead of the size of their pack

Make them scared of everything

Except the comforts you placed in their cages

Tell them

That the outside is so scary

And that’s why you let them live here

But be sure to let them know

They are making

The logical choice to stay

The easy choice to not speak out

The sensible choice to turn the other cheek

Never let them uncover

The graves that silence is always so busy digging

Change isn’t necessary

Until it is

So

Keep things consistent