Article: America the Dutiful

After the Great Depression
the Rich had the impression
we were ripe for revolution.
Their solution? A New Deal.

But this "gift" they gave us
was merely to enslave us
temporarily amaze us
'til they could tear that mother down.

After World War Two
they gave us credit.
Did it work on us?
You bet. It's
worked so well we're
all in debt up to our ass.

We got little Levitt
mockups of their mansions,
sprawling highway expansion
of veins ready for the oily needle
in the nation's arm.

And they let us go to
college, but they're
afraid of knowledge
'cause it's POWER
(TO THE PEOPLE). Can't
have that! You have a
dream? You just dream on.

Basic education is outdated
on the corporate plantation.
All the world's remediation
can't undo the devastation done
by whole word reading and new math.

And this theft of skills
makes a mockery
of participatory democracy,
sending us down the corporate
Manifest Destiny path.

Advertising's their predation
for our seduction and sedation
so without evaluation
we'll submit
while they feed on us like jackals,
slap our souls in shackles
and have us branded by age three
with corporate logo loyalty.
Our only future is the next thing that we buy.

Pharmaceuticals push legal drugs
for shyness and bad moods.
Huge conglomerates sing our love songs
to alcohol, SUVs and fried foods.
They've tranquilized and supersized us
with material goods
and ubiquitous depictions
of degrading sexual juxtapositions
laid like land mines
in all the media's neighborhoods.

Yet after all this depredation
we've let the corporate plantation
become our American Idol(atry).
We want our ship to come in
so we can be just like them.
Meanwhile we take our place in
the new U.S. "serve us" economy.

Ask not what your country
has done to you, because
there is no remorse. And
don't you know nobody
knows you when you
down(sized) and out(sourced).

- Vi Ransel