Jogging the Mind

A place for poetry and pondering.


Verse Poem 14

Hello all,

I think about the movie Idiocracy a lot, not because I think we live it in our every day life, but I do think we partake in a virtual version of it. The internet is a warped sense of the world when the world is really, a very nice place. So, I wrote about that–and, in addition to the Idiocracy reference, there is also a 1984 allusion as well. Anyway, let me know what you think, if you decide to read it.

The Public Square
Is now a virtual affair, demonstrably
Unfair in an algorithmic allegory of
Two Minutes Hate, but it’s a 24-hour
Debate that one cannot escape--
Offering no catharsis, only the fresh
Carcass of decency, at least recently,
And it seems to me that ceaselessly
Arguing is harboring hatred within us,
Bearing witness to our unfitness to rule--
The power of the people has been laid bare
On the strings of puppets unaware,
Elections are now the inventions of
Online tensions, and presidents are just
The evidence of a techno-Idiocracy
Obsessed with the electrolytes of our
Electric life, uselessly and ruthlessly
Reactionary based on the imaginary
Indignation rampant within our nation--
But the virtual vitriol is viable only online,
And does not define reality; the divine
Normality of a mundane morality is in
Everyday life, shopping with the wife,
Workplace strife, or staying rife with
Conversation because real-world
Demonstrations of decency defy
Online deviancy easily, thus
This internet interference has no place in
The public square.

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