The glassy ‘new normal’

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” – H.L. Mencken

If Mencken is right then democracy has by now been perfected in the U.S., thus:

Screen-augmented monomania
White House megalomania
Crass corporate kleptomania
Pervasive mythomania

Narratives declarative
the abnormal dressed up formal
while outright imperative:
Such is the glassy ‘new normal’

Swallowed in mindless frivolity
amidst decaying life quality

Dags att återgå till en skvätt folkvett?

Blev gamla tiders folkvett
så väl använt att det tog slut?
Med nya käcka synsätt
vet vi kanske ej längre hut?

Passar ej att bry sej om
(i uppumpad självsyn)
stort sett annat än dotcom
i trist brist på hänsyn?

Kanske är mitt eget synsätt bristfälligt
mitt gamla skick å tal grinigt å gnälligt?

Indelibly branded with reputations stranded?

Once we begin to label
people, situations
they’ll turn simplistic fable
drawing allegations

An opinion in a blink
demands our chiding or sainting
without bothering to think
could prove indelibly tainting

‘Evil’ found irreversible
seen as beyond redemption
while ‘Good’ always traversable
fragrant without exemption

But at times don’t ‘good’ people seem buffoonish
while ‘evil’ people benignly cartoonish?

 

On path unswerving, well deserving …

Behind plush home compound’s locks
stacked portfolio of stocks

and in the driveway
a monstrous vehicle
true to the cliche
monomaniacal

Enthroned sitting high up
me, entitled little elf
on my cell, with my pup
looking well after myself

On path unswerving
how well deserving!

Our sidewalks replete, while busy courting South China Sea defeat

That citizens sleep on sidewalks
engenders but little compassion
while belligerent China hawks
are in exceptionalist fashion

To send our young crisply uniformed
endowed by ‘defense’ budget bloat
amidst cheers by public uninformed
to sally beyond our own moat

Billions squandered sparring in the South China Sea
by a ‘civilized’ nation … how can it still be?!