[Newspoetry] Pomo Pom

[Mike Lehman]

Postmodernism is like the stealth bomber
A technical wonder of apparently devastating impact
That is too complex to be deployed in the field.

Or it could be compared to the typical internet company
All flash and gee whiz graphics
Very little substance
Sort of like an ongoing hallucination
That disorients
Without the benefit of insight.

Ah that sounds just like Baudrillard
Speaking about modern culture! 
How post modern you are!

All analysis
And no introspection
Makes Jack a dull boy.

Thankfully the two aren't mutually exclusive.
Jack however remains in danger of being self-obsessed 
And a bore down the pub.

Ah, but really living is a matter of balancing analysis
Service to others
And knowledge of one's self.

Amen.

Alas I'm no Christian
So I can't truly share these views
Although I admire
The somewhat noble sentiment.

"so act as to treat humanity,
whether in thine own person or
in that of another,
in every case as an end,
never only as a means" - Kant

Now theres a noble thought
Which I forget everytime I watch Jerry Springer.

Self-indulgence leads to all the other sins.
Is that a misquote of the road of excess
Leads to the palace of wisdom?

Yeah, of the "seven sins" 
(or were they vices?)
Mentioned in Christianity
I gotta say that to me it seems pride and avarice 
Are the Big Two that tend to spawn the others

But for some reason I never hear about people
Wanting to post diatribes 
Against pride and avarice in schools
Maybe they think it would clash 
With the Channel One and the Coke machines out in the hall.

Give a mallard a fiver and it'll just eat it.
Teach it how to mint currency
And you'll have really done something useless.

I think the right in this country
Have just forgotten about morality altogether.
Thankfully the majority of people
Have forgotten about the right.

Morality is just one more product to most of these folks
How else to explain the rise of televangelism? 
Or voting for the religously correct candidate?
Don't count the right out
But they do seem to be on the decline.
Which is likely to make them more dangerous.
Like a rabid dog that senses
That there is only one thing that will
Bring it peace.

C. G. Estabrook, Mike Lehman, Simon Mills, Maiko Covington and Ben
Blanchard