Stuff from July & August 2017

               To Express Dissatisfaction

‘Hey.’

‘Hey.’

‘How yuh doin’?’

‘Not too bad. You?’

‘Can’t complain.’

‘Oh, yes you can.

Everybody has plenty to complain about.

You just gotta have some gripes; You know you do.

Go ahead! Don’t suffer in silence. Let it out.

Grizzle till you run out of gas. You’ll feel so much better.

Think of the catharsis! Think of the release!

Your job sucks and your boss is a shitnozzle?

Fuckwit drivers don’t know how to use their turn signals?

Bitch about it.

Your fucken car?

Burglers?

Cops?

The opposite sex?

Your power bill?

Assholes on the internet?

Your landlord?

Your family?

Bank fees?

Predatory corporations?

Food fads?

Neoliberalism?

The government?

Young people nowadays?

How about human greed and cruelty?

Money?

C’mon! Indulge yourself in a bit of a whinge!’

‘Well, it has been raining a lot the past few days.’

‘Well done! The weather’s always good for a grumble.’

  

             Consequences Last

My mother’s abusive behaviour toward me,

starting from the dawn of my memory in the 1940s,

still fucks me up in 2017,

and nothing seems to have much effect on that.

Because consequences last,

and last,

and last,

in my mind I always come in last.

Anything else feels unnatural.

Other people seem to be able to sense this

and exploit it when the occasion arises,

like carrion crows,

if I’m not already less than shit to them

and not worth the trouble

of even considering last.

I don’t cast aspersions on them for this.

I realise that’s just the way it is.

Their behaviour toward me is only natural and right.

I accept it.

Of course I don’t like it,

but nobody has any cause to give a shit

about what I like or don’t like

except for me, naturally,

and I don’t count.

And to all the smug, smirking

evangelists of positive thinking

who tell me that I can shed this baggage

if I only want to do so and Just Do It,

I can only explain my failure to assert myself

by agreeing with them that I’m their inferior,

and will they please just shut the fuck up.

Consequences last.

            Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

Ringo just claimed in an interview

that Paul had died in 1966

and that an imposter named Billy Shears

has been impersonating him

for the past half-century or so.

Paul replied publicly that Ringo is senile

adding a few other dismissive adjectives.

Social media took up the debate.

Now, back in 63 when the Beatles first hit

I danced with clumsy white-boy enthusiasm

and sang, ‘I wanna hold your gland!’

loudly off-key over the record,

just like so many others did,

and in 67 I got stoned and lost myself in Sgt Pepper,

just like so many others did,

but when I saw this public stoush

and considered some of its potential consequences,

I realised that, in 2017,

which person was telling the truth there

had no effect whatsoever on my life

one way or the other,

even though the truth is always important,

and decided it was time to take my old dog for a walk,

and then make myself a cheese and tomato sammie

for supper when we made it back home.

I don’t eat as much at one sitting as I used to do.

I wonder if this goes for other old people,

like Ringo and Paul-Or-Not-Paul, too.

 

       It’s The Jews, He Told Me

Conspiracy theorists say that they think,

and furthermore say that they think

that they’re bucking the establishment

and battling against those who oppress the rest of us

by suppressing information.

One problem with this, for me at least,

is that it serves the purposes of the oppressors

by diverting energy and outrage and media exposure

from the way that they, the plutocracy,

are actually ruining billions of lives

by focusing on trivialities.

I mean, it makes no difference to me

if NASA faked the moon landing

and has spent a large chunk of its budget since then

paying hush money to everyone on the film crew

who did their dirty work –

and it would’ve been a fairly large film crew.

It makes no difference to me if all those involved

want to spend large amounts of energy and money

suppressing evidence of visitors from outer space

for no reason that I know of.

I’ve been drinking fluoridated water

for most of my life

with neither my neighbours nor myself

suffering any ill effects.

And so on.

It does make a difference, though,

if they can get people to blame

a medium-sized London merchant bank

(((The Jews)))

for all of the oligarchy’s crimes,

and then some.

  

                             No Debate 

It’s another New Zealand election campaign season,

and glancing at the comments section under political posts,

which I’m indeed old enough to know better than to do,

it struck me how generally worthless political arguments are.

Look – you wanna vote for the National Party? Fine.

If the National Party embodies your values,

that is, if you think corruption, mean-spiritedness, lying,

bullying, and kissing the arses of rich pigs –

both Kiwi and multinational – is desirable,

and you think the Greens are –

oh, I don’t know: a bunch of poo bums,

or some similar name-callers’ epithet,

then I think you should definitely vote for National –

No debate there. No argument.

Simple, eh?

And Labour? Well, y’know,

if you’re comfy in the narrowing middle of the road,

with good intentions blunted by corporations’ donations,

go for it!

Now, seen any good movies lately?

      Respecting Others’ Cultures

The matador fucked up,

for whatever reason,

and died from impact with the bull’s horns.

The Spaniards, as is their cultural tradition,

hanged the bull by his neck,

a terrible, agonising death

for the uncomprehending soul

who was only defending himself.

The 40-year-old Yemeni family’s friend

married their eight year old daughter,

as is the Arabian cultural tradition;

she died of internal bleeding

on their wedding night.

In Yulin, China the villagers laugh

as they shove a struggling, tortured dog

into boiling water

as part of their cultural tradition

that calls for this.

A court in Belgium found eight princesses

from the United Arab Emirates

guilty of slave trafficking

on a stay in a luxury Belgian hotel,

the ownership and mistreatment

of slaves as domestic servants

being a traditional cultural status symbol

back home in the Gulf.

French farmers and gourmets

savour the cultural tradition

of torturing geese before slaughtering them

for their artificially enlarged livers, or foie gras,

that satisfy the gourmets’

traditionally pampered palates.

Many people in East Africa’s Great Lakes region

act on a traditional cultural belief

that the body parts of albino people

have magical properties,

by killing and butchering albino children

to get the ingredients

for their magic potions.

Poorly educated people in the American South,

who identify themselves as white people,

including some poorly educated college graduates,

revere displaying the Confederate flag

as emblematic of their most dearly held

cultural traditions,

specifically proud memories of a war

their ancestors fought to deny the humanity

of the ancestors of people in whose faces

they – traditionally – prefer to wave it.  

                    A Career In Sales

I reached into my letter box

on my way out to walk the dog,

groped out an envelope,

which wasn’t from the Council or the Government,

and stuck it in one of my hip pockets, right next to my

heart.

It was addressed to ‘Resident’,

and was from the Slingshot mobile-phone-number company.

A blurb on the outside of the envelope

offered a six months not-quite-free something or other.

It made me feel a sharp sadness.

New Zealand has a shitload of telecom service providers,

Slingshot isn’t among either the most popular

or the most highly rated by its customers,

and most of us have other things to do

than go through the hassle of changing phone companies.

That poor bastard in charge of Slingshot sales!

Think of the shit our system puts people like that through.

Think of the pressure from the bosses,

who are too cheap to let the pathetic patsy

offer the punters a real incentive;

think of the cost of direct-mail advertising –

think of the desperation!

I wouldn’t be surprised if the poor mug

ends up riding an avalanche of P right down the gurgler.

                    Spousal Abuse Witnessed

One time Smoky asked me

if my step-father ever abused my mother.

I cracked up, almost spraying my coffee in front of me.

Nobody ever abused my mother;

it was my mother who abused other people.

This was as certain as the sun setting in the west.

It brought to mind the evening before I married Helena,

and we attended a pre-nuptial soirée for family and friends

in a flash duplex suite that Howard, my step-father,

had taken in some flash French Quarter hotel.

Howard had an alcohol problem, and he’d tucked into a

person-with-an-alcohol-problem’s ration of bubbly,

but he was harmless, standing off at an introvert’s distance

with a silly smile on his face, somewhat unsteady on his pins.

My mother, however, took exception to his condition

(maybe he’d told her he’d do it teetotal – I don’t know)

and started tearing shreds off him

with the sort of persistent, venomous nastiness

for which she had few equals in this world.

Unable to escape her, Howard raised his hand in anger.

She coldcocked him, a roundhouse right

that would’ve flattened him

if a piece of furniture hadn’t been fortunately in place

behind him to catch his fall.

He didn’t arise again immediately,

and the party was as good as over.

No, my step-father never abused my mother.

If any abusing was to be done,

she’s the one who was going to do it.

              Captain Beefheart Is Dead

A dry, aromatic Southwestern canyon breeze

ruffled the cypress and the juniper

and the hair on my arms as I toured the log-façaded villa.

Captain Beefheart is dead.

Some geniuses are so simple that they’re difficult,

but they can respond to simplicity, and easily;

business can fuck up anything but the source of the music.

Captain Beefheart is dead.

Nighttime in the desert exposes unchanging majesty;

the desert animals come out to its welcome,

the sun’s crazy blazing blocked off by God’s golfball.

Captain Beefheart is dead.

Music slips in between a barrage of rainfall,

being randomly structured, but rigidly composed;

raindrops are matter; the stars are matter; we’re matter, too.

Captain Beefheart is dead.

Nerds and geeks and earnest-looking weirdos

packed the sour-smelling room shoulder-to-shoulder

and knew all the word and free-form instrumentation phrases.

Captain Beefheart is dead.

The Blue Grosbeak takes no cash for its musical efforts,

dogs don’t charge each other for the poetry of their scent,

crisp, grey autumn days dispense their magic for free,

Captain Beefheart is dead.

That deep, gravelly, expressive blues voice

that captivated the Captain’s devoted cult following

chuckled warmly at my little joke.

Captain Beefheart is dead.

  

                 Thingness

   (a song lyric needing music)

We’re a dildo, not a cock,

you and me.

We’re not a person, just livestock,

we’re a porn flick not a lover;

with no feelings, with no cover.

We can just forget about the blues;

we’re only there for them to use;

we’re the doormat, we’re the football,

you and me.

They tell us that we’re special in God’s eyes,

you and me,

but act like we’re too inert to despise –

We can just forget about the blues;

we’re only there for them to use;

we’re the doormat, we’re the football,

you and me.

We’re soulless and disposable,

like a condom or a tampon,

ornaments they can tramp on,

hardly even decomposable;

we’re a something, not a somebody;

maybe useful, maybe shoddy –

just an it – you and me.

We’re not citizens, just consumers,

you and me.

targets for their nasty sense of humour –

you and me.

We can just forget about the blues;

we’re only there for them to use;

we’re the doormat, we’re the football,

you and me.

Unless, of course, you’re one of them –

you, not me.

Unless, of course, you’re one of them –

you, not me.

      The Verbalator

I have it! I have it!

The Next Great Superhero,

good for a franchise

of scads of movies

and piles of pingas,

will be – ta-DAH!

The Verbalator!

By day an inarticulate kitchen hand

working the lunch shift

at a cheesy chop house,

Our Hero transforms into

The Verbalator

when the sun goes down,

befuddling bad guys

with elegant verbiage,

a cracking vocabulary,

and savagely excellent grammar and syntax.

A suave, urbane, cultured sort,

The Verbalator will sign off each episode

with a wry smile

(or a shy smile,

or maybe a grimace)

and the catch-phrase:

‘Words work wonderful wins.’

Or maybe, ‘Words win wonderful work.’

Or maybe, ‘Win with wonderful word work.’

Or something like that.

I’m open to suggestions

if they’ll help get this idea off the ground.

I visualise myself in the role, of course,

although it might be better box office

for The Verbalator to be a woman.

International Business

                     Ruled By Slaves

Although the corporations that rule the world

govern themselves with strict rationality,

given their assumptions,

it is the deep irrationality of those assumptions

that have sent human life into a downward spiral

that even the corporations are unlikely to survive

in the long term.

Key amongst these rationally flawed assumptions

is that the law must consider corporations

to be persons – almost the same as you and me –

at least as far as rights are concerned,

if not responsibilities.

One of the many rational difficulties

that this doctrine presents

– such as that corporations obviously aren’t really people –

is that corporations are the property of their shareholders,

and so, as persons, are obviously slaves,

thereby violating every national law and international covenant

outlawing slavery.

One major practical consequence

of this form of legal slavery

is that corporations have no choice but to serve their masters

by doing everything possible

to maximise their profits and equity,

no matter how harmful this may be

to the welfare and well-being of anyone or anything else.

Being ruled by slaves such as these is no picnic for most,

and the greater their power the less of a picnic it becomes.

        Curious About Evil

I wonder what it would be like

to wake up every morning

surrounded by luxury and things,

yet dissatisfied with the obscene amounts

of egregious wealth and power

that are mine – all mine,

to dress in elegantly custom-tailored clothing,

to have a breakfast

of what is only food

– imported or at least gourmet food, perhaps,

but still only food –

and then to sally forth

to justify my material rewards

by way of the hard but self-satisfying work

of extracting wealth

from the blood of ordinary people

in various parts of the world,

while underlings brown-nose me obsequiously

and leap to do my bidding –

the only things that come close to satisfying me –

although I could never get enough.

Yes, I do wonder what it would be like.

I don’t think it would suit me at all, though.

         The Business Model of Education

Once the self-centred, parasitical sociopaths

who operate corporate fascism

extended their nasty grip

to include what used to qualify as universities,

starting of course in the United States

and radiating out as best they can elsewhere,

the usual outcomes,

such as enormous remuneration packages

for the chief executives,

whether called chancellors or presidents,

which grew faster than the dicks

of horny student-athletes at frat parties,

and squeezed-down incomes

along with precarious employment conditions

for almost everyone else in the system,

as well as general dumbing-down policies,

followed like consumers in the thrall of a popular brand.

The only quandary inherent in this business model,

at least as far as I can tell,

is how the students fit into it:

basically, are they the corporate universities’ customers,

or are they its products?

The problem being that by maximising the customer base,

which means lowering standards and making passing a cinch

(“Cs get degrees”)

they reduce the quality of their final product, or graduates,

thereby reducing the value of their degrees,

and their attractiveness to new customer-students.

It’s a toughie.

          The Thing About Bullets

The thing about bullets,

bright, shiny things that they are

that would make excellent conversation pieces

if poured into a globular crystal vase

and set on the coffee table,

isn’t just that they’re harmless

unless somebody shoots them

out of a gun at somebody else;

they also have a fairly long shelf life,

which means that

unless somebody shoots them,

whoever owns them rarely needs to replace them

except for those fired in target practice,

so that inducing people

to shoot them at other people,

or at least making it easier for them to do so,

speeds up turnover,

and is therefore good for business

for those in the bullet business,

even though the Pope said

that people who are in the bullet business

can’t be good Christians,

even though the Vatican Bank

owns a major stake

in Baretta,

one of the world’s largest bullet factories.

       The Lobbying Workforce

These operatives,

the ones who muck in the grime

of face-to-face corruption,

beefing up their expense accounts

wooing and schmoozing pliable politicians

and public executives and regulators,

buying them with campaign contributions and worse

– we all have our weaknesses –

providing them with tailored-to-order research,

and promising them cushy jobs

when they leave the public service,

these operatives tend to be

good-looking, with straight teeth

and easy confidence,

former captains of their sport teams,

the first in their classes at prep school

to get laid, if men,

or, if women, the most popular

and always the best dressed.

These operatives are, professionally,

easy people to like.

Their bosses, who are indistinguishable 

from those whom they bribe,

since they slither seamlessly back and forth

between public and private payrolls,

tend to be older, of course,

and although some may retain vestiges

of their formerly attractive selves,

their faces, whether saggy or re-done,

almost inevitably carry the baggage

of lifetimes of narcissistic corruption and evil.

            Corporate Leaders & Those Who Suck Up To Them

Ego self-glorification –

and a little bit of greed –

this agglomeration of people

who’ve sussed the system

and have no semblance of decency

in their characters

go busily about

gleefully fucking things up

for their own grandchildren

with enormous displays

of self-righteousness.

          At The End Of The Day

It’s not as if

they wring their hands together

whilst rolling their eyes maniacally

and cackle with demented glee

as they plan to rule the world.

They’re more likely to look respectable,

and dress conservatively,

even when fishing

from their luxury motor yachts.

They’re also likely to speak,

with superficial rationality,

in measured, well-modulated voices,

stressing their responsibility

to act irresponsibly

in order to maximise

their corporations’

bottom lines

at the end of the day.

They have, of course, no interest in optimising

anybody’s quality of life

at the end of this century,

let alone the next,

and consider any real democracy

anywhere

for any purpose

to be an unwarranted obstacle

to their power

to maximise their corporations’

bottom lines

at the end of the day.

Ruling the world all by themselves,

after all,

would be much less messy.

         The Maximum and the Optimum

The United States of America

is not responsible for, or complicit in,

all of the human suffering the world –

just most of it –

currently and for the next century or so,

at least.

It’s not just its love of war,

or the complacent, hypocritical American assumption

of being entitled, both individually and collectively,

to more and better everything than others.

It’s also, among other things,

its business model that takes it as axiomatic

that businesses’ sole purpose

is to maximise profit,

and its evangelising of this evil notion globally.

This has resulted, for example,

in the heinous suffering

of tens, maybe hundreds, of millions of the workers employed

by Chinese subsidiaries and suppliers

of such all-American firms as Apple, Wal-Mart, and Disney,

despite China’s enlightened national labour laws

and the noble-sounding corporate policies,

which the profit-maximisation system currently in place

provides local enforcement agencies and businesses

enormous incentives to ignore.

The Dutch Nobel Prize winning economist Jan Tinbergen

summarised the eventually self-destructive insanity of all this

with the maxim, ‘The maximum is not the optimum’ –

something I know personally to be true

from my own experiences with whisky.

 {As Performed Live by the New Millennium Beatniks}