Wednesday, March 23, 2011

An Immodest Social Agenda

Grow all our crops organically, simply as the standard way to farm
Raise animals on proper food, outside of feedlots and render them with dignity
Do not increase population to artificially pump up the economy just to pay off our debts
End the dependence on cheap asian imports and expensive caliphate petroleum

Learn to expect added features in conjunction with increased efficiency
Dismantle the arthritic political parties and scatter those wretched lobbyists
Pioneer and profit from clean and inexpensive ocean water desalinization technology
Simply and irreversibly cut the military budget in half over the next ten years

Set an entrepreneurial example in greenhouse gas reduction for the world
Rebuild our roads, bridges, dams, electric grid, water systems and the internet
Restore our international reputation, respect and moral strength
Awaken our people from this mindless, hyper-consumptive advertising hypnosis

The old should again welcome their age and the youth once more look to them for wisdom
Let us lose the fear of simple and natural silence that forces us into mindless noise
Dismantle the multinationals which happily abandon us all to equal global poverty
Conduct all government business within our borders only in English

Multitask the mega-churches into low cost health clinics and lifelong learning centers
Tax all the powerful religious franchises like any other corporate entity
Properly count the underemployed and those ‘no longer seeking’ among the unemployed
Stop us lusting after ATVs, jet skis, snowmobiles, dirtbikes, speedboats and RVs

Ignore the phony urgency of their unimportant deadlines on all those meaningless projects
Ask where this is made and that is grown and of their unseen costs to the earth
Address the whys and therefores of this foolish and lost war on drugs
Abandon the Middle East to fly-plagued sectarian violence under the merciless desert sun

Don’t bother raising their retirement ages when they haven’t a chance at finding a job
Get old with the dignity of a decaying tree and not like a discarded fast food wrapper
End our leader’s dependence on public ignorance for the success of their bribed agendas
Make mine small, built-to-last, extremely efficient but, nonetheless, quite luxurious

Realize that bipartisan legislative paralysis is not mandated by our constitution
Let us be liberal and squishy on some issues and bullheadedly conservative on others
Reject phony choices and hot-button, wedge issue and litmus test political campaigning
Make these political actors write their own goddamn speeches for Christ’s stupid sake

Somehow, just make our healthcare system as cheap and efficient as theirs and we’ll be just fine
Abolish the career politician and extinguish the professional lobbyist
Protect our rivers, lakes, wetlands and oceans just like we protect our own children
Drop infantile, literalist fundamentalism for a mature wonder at divine uncertainty

Cultivate morality and love as our greatest weapons in our un-winnable struggle
Get everybody pushing back energy into the grid from a myriad of sources
Preserve and enforce the Endangered Species Act to re-create intact ecosystems
Quit relying on an oversupply of young, cheap, uneducated peasant labor for unsustainable growth

Realize that corporate profit goals are not broad enough to set the world’s agenda
Re-use, refurbish, re-gift, re-purpose, restore and rebuild
End the non-violent takeover of North America and Europe by illegal immigration
Reduce the incidence of single-parenting to save the family and shrink the prisons

Realize that no child left behind may well mean that all our children tie for last
Drive much more efficient cars and cut back on our senseless commuting by 25%
Wean ourselves from fats, sugars, white bread, greasy burgers, cellophaned snacks and soft drinks
Put some real effort into developing a cure for the sick madness we call war

End bullshit congressional earmarks, the electoral college and grant the president a line item veto
Curb the endless, wasteful noise of machinery so that we need not shout to think
Remove the immoral wage disparity of workers and their phony superstar executives
Raise children who do not carelessly litter, casually make noise and crudely waste energy

Admit that the blind economic hand, Social Darwinism and literalist fundamentalism is not magically resulting in a better world
Take a much lower international profile and let others sort it out for themselves
Realize that staying on message is exactly equivalent to endlessly repeating propaganda

Quit subsidizing corporate agriculture while simultaneously calling for free trade
Stop letting paid lobbyists bribe politicians into legislating on industry’s behalf
Don’t keep building and rebuilding homes in floodplains, so valuable left in their natural state
Restore the life to our rivers and count that as part of our so-called GDP

Get the politicians off of abortion, flag-burning, gay marriage and stem cells
Let’s talk about sustainability, energy independence and cutting military spending
How about we just finally realize that healthcare does not belong in the marketplace
Maybe we could actually begin to search for peace within ourselves

Somebody could even start up a real 24 hour news channel
Get control of national debt before it bursts like the bank bubble
Don’t let’s build more of these same old poisonous coal-fired power plants just to save a buck
Keep the internet from becoming just another form of corpro-broadcast television

Stop us spending time and money worshiping these empty sports and entertainment deities
Recognize, revere and reward young scientists, mathematicians and engineers
Biometrically and digitally identify us to end illegal immigration and identity theft
Amend the constitution to grant us the simple right to privacy in our own homes

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