Here, in the Peaceable Kingdom
March 12 2022
Even here
in the peaceable kingdom
in our island fortress
we are touched by war.
Because evil men are running the world.
Because it's 1984
all over again.
If only the people knew
we tell ourselves
they would rise up.
If only the mad scrabble for power
did not reward
unscrupulous men
of low character
and bottomless greed.
Like crabs in the bucket
scrambling over each other
until the meanest
comes out on top.
So, are we blessed?
Different?
Deserving?
Or is it dumb luck
and the accident of birth?
Would we not have been the Nazis
we so easily demonize,
when we should rightly acknowledge
the flawed humanity
we can't help but share?
Like fish
swimming in a sea
of shame and conformity,
would we, too, have dutifully saluted
been wilfully blind
fooled ourselves?
Meanwhile, children are pummelled by bombs.
Refugees huddle
with nothing but what they carry.
The old and infirm suffer
unable to flee.
And amidst the rubble.
corpses smell.
While kleptocrats
horde their wealth.
And the leaders
sequestered in armoured towers
and gaudy palaces
construct their own reality,
growing fat
on ill-gotten gains
and untrammelled power.
I dislike and avoid political poems. But I can no longer suppress my outrage and hopelessness.
The prose (below) elaborates, and this is very satisfying to write. But the poetry forces distillation and compression, and so gets at the essentials, while at the same time tempering them with art. So perhaps a more memorable and impactful way to write.
Putin is committing war crimes and mass murder in Ukraine. As he did in Grozny and Aleppo. As the unreconstructed KGB apparatchik did in poisoning and assassinating his critics. He is immiserating the entire world, and for no conceivable gain — even for himself, his cronies, his people.
Why are we repeatedly led by such repugnant and mediocre men (yes, it's almost always men)? I think of the cumulative damage done by men like Trump, Putin, Bolsonaro. To world peace, human progress, the environment. All probably certifiable psychopaths. Like crabs on a bucket, moral and empathetic people don't stand a chance against them.
What makes us think we are exempt: entitled; more morally pure; at the end of history; privileged to be mere observers?
And why are the masses still so easily fooled, despite our wired world: lacking in media literacy and critical thinking skills? I say this because propaganda is winning wars, and our essentially social nature makes it hard not to conform.
Believe me, if you were raised among Nazis, white supremacists, or fundamentalist believers, you would most likely be one as well. We may prize ourselves for being free thinkers, but this is as much an accident of birth as this prosperous and stable country (at least for now!) we were gifted. We are essentially social creatures, and for most of us (most, but not all, because some pure and fierce souls rise above) our social milieu counts more than any internal moral compass. Instead of the easy way out of demonizing and dehumanizing the Nazis and the Putin enablers, we need to be brave enough to see ourselves in them.
In the rough draft, in the 2nd stanza, I had mad instead of evil. But why pull punches, why avoid the more emotionally evocative word? I like it's Old Testament resonance and uncompromising power.
And in the 5th, shame. Which seems at first an odd choice, since we think of shame as steering us toward good behaviour. That's because for social creatures who can't survive outside the group, shame is the primary means of social control. But still, a morally neutral one: it can steer us either way, depending on the society in which it operates.
Here in Canada, we are literally an island fortress. If not well-armed, then well defended: surrounded on three sides by a moat of oceans, and on the fourth by the United States. A friendly power. So far.
I struggled with the title, and ended up taking the path of least resistance: repeating the first line, more or less.
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