Ethics

This work ethic destroys any kind of poise
we have as humans.  It's a pathetic attempt to stifle
the individual noise of genius within each of us
and the frightening thing is, it works.
We go to school, get a state education which leaves us
in a state of bewilderment and frustration.
We end up with a job that we maybe don't like
in order to make money to pay for things we really
don't need.  Some of us hopefully still have the greed
for learning for its own sake, a yearning for the true
reason why we're here, not to buy beer and smoke, but
to have some kind of hope, an appreciation of the beauty
which surrounds us, a desire to prevent others from blindly
pounding everything into the dust, to stop the madness of
nuclear weapons, the rape of women, the murder of children,
cruelty to animals, all kinds of oozing of pus.  It's a kind of
contagious rabies passed on from father to son with no question
of what have we done, what are we doing?  The whole scenario
bludgeons us till we view each other with a constant sneer.
We fear what we cannot do on our own, one voice alone cannot be
heard amid the hype, would only be confused in the babble of
horror and hate veneering our so-called civilised age.  It's too late
to bring in some other idea, some balancing act of will that will
arrest our bad list to one side.  We march on with heads bowed
along paths already roped out.  Yet there's reading, learning, 
writing, art, history, the list is endless.  Beautiful creations
of an eternity of people pouring their guts out on something real,
on something they believe in, get some kind of ecstasy from.
And what are we taught?  Naught but the procuring of a roll of
paper called a qualification that's supposed to be a testimony
to our intelligent labour, that's supposed to get us a job instead
of nurturing clear, shining souls, aware of our talents, our goals,
and of using them to the utmost for one's own and others' benefit.
We waste ourselves on dogmatic beliefs, blind arguments,
on intolerant politics, consumerism and that work ethic.
I ask you.  Do I have to spell it out in phonetics for everyone
to catch on?  This land, this world, is for us all, each and every one.
We don't own it, the plants, the animals which live with us.
We have no right to infringe each other or grab anything we can.
We'll be bringing down some sort of evil that we can't dispel,
an environment and society made of pure hell, the hard uncaring
smell of gold and the welling of our souls' revulsion for this
insane expulsion of human kindness.  We have a polluting,
battering stink, and we don't ever think of another's starvation,
of violence, hurt or degradation, as long as we're all right,
we can sleep at night and think on what we'll do tomorrow
or at the weekend, we've become far too shallow
to know how to mark the brow of the world's endless spinning.
After all, the minority are winning.

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