Where do you stand?

It's the old tug of war,
left vs right
us vs them
Except someone's found a tractor
and set the field on fire

Where do you stand?

They're busy yelling out the rules-
of up is down
and down is up
of watch thy neighbour burn
I've never been good at following rules

Where do you stand?

I've never been very good at standing, either
but now the heat's on
are you worried we'll make it-
left, right or in the middle?
Authoritarian or liberal?

Where do you stand?
And who stands with you?

A.J. Ponder


To find out, why don't you take the Political Compass Test https://www.politicalcompass.org/test
For many it is an eye-opener, it's easy to believe you're more moderate than you are, that a party is left leaning, when it is really right leaning, or a party is libertarian because they are against taxation.

Now while you might not agree with everything in it, it does seem to work, and is a ready frame-work to compare countries, parties and even movement over time. For NZ, US, AU, UK, DE, and more.

Have a great week people, let's hope we can all pull together and put out the flames. :)

The Tug of war competition at the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris - Denmark/Sweden v France

From http://www.olympic.org/uk/utilities/multimedia/gallery/index_uk.asp

This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.

The Art of Modern Warfare with Words

They shall frame you,
then they shall destroy you,
mark my words,
there is no middle ground.

First they demonised the poor
for the crimes of the rich
Then they demonised the Muslims,
to steal oil
Now they're framing the Jews
with an old lie,
an evil lie
to stop you from seeing the whole picture.

They shall frame you,
then they shall destroy you,
mark my words,
brushstrokes matter.
 
We, the people,
are not the threat
The threat is the obscene voice
of corporations
A voice that has corrupted
the politicians
A voice that has corrupted
the media
A voice that
calls to your fears
and twists them.

Once they've framed you,
then they shall destroy you
Mark my words
the fight is now,
or not at all
As the media bows to
the narrative,
their integrity as
bought and sold as the politicians
receiving tobacco PAC cheques
on the house floor.

They shall frame you,
then they shall call you violent
and place the gun
They shall accuse you of the crimes
they have committed
They shall pay a pittance
and take everything -
water
freedom
your very life
and when there is nothing left,
they will blame you.

So please break the frame 
before it destroys you
Mark my words,
there is no middle ground -
unless you stand up -
unless you say no -
unless you yell the truth
like the smallest Who in Whoville.
Please make a noise,
just a yip or a squeak,
because
you are
our only hope.

They shall frame you,
then they shall destroy you
Mark my words,
the fight is now
or not at all.


A.J. Ponder



There is a companion poem for this piece, published 5 years ago, it's called Perspective.  http://anafflictionofpoetry.blogspot.co.nz/2011/03/tuesday-poem-perspective.html

So how is your world being framed?

1. Lying by Omission
2. Controlling the Debate
3. Scripting and Synchronizing News
4. Politicizing Everything  
5 Chasing and creating buzzwords and memes
6. Asking the Wrong Questions
7. Closing down the topic - or airing it like the birther conspiracy long after it was dead.
8 Triviality and Distraction
9. Outright Lying


It's time to fight for our rights #noDAPL #livingwage #HumanRights #sustainability #eco #climatechange #change #education #green #impact #peace #democracy #defundDAPL #PoliticalPrisoner #environment #pollution #climate #globalwarming #solar

Peace Out :)

A.J. Ponder

Pants on Fire

So
You think you know
the toothiness,
the truthiness of that
fact.

Chew it over
spit it out

Just watch
those words

Some are more fiery
than others


Watching political debates in my house often involves much eye-rolling at the shocking mis-statements of the candidates. So it's nice to know that there's a website dedicated to sifting fact from fiction, truths from untruths. There's no more need for "truthiness" (thanks Stephen Colbert) if you visit http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/

Of course if you want some fun you can go straight to the "pants on fire" page, or check out your least liked American politicians ;)

I'm not so sure why we're so fascinated by the American election, we're on the other side of the world, but then I don't know why we all like hot sauce...  ;)

Have a great week,

A.J. Ponder

Tuesday Poem: The Hero - Movement 3 Political Evolution

Movement 3 Political Evolution

Today

All

Is still

Except the carrion call

Rising triumphant

Into the

First rays

Of the new dawn

Today

We shall eat

Drink and be merry

My fine vultures

Today we feast

on heroes 

A.J. Ponder

And that, my friends was the last exciting instalment of "The Hero." 

If you're interested the first instalment, Corpse Road is here at 

http://anafflictionofpoetry.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/tuesday-poem-hero-first-movement.html

"Baby Teeth" signing pic curtesy of Matt Cowens

And the second instalment, Last Stand, is at  http://anafflictionofpoetry.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/tuesday-poem-hero-movement-2-last-stand.html

Busy week this week, Baby teeth launch on the 30th and the White Cloud World Exhibition at Rona Gallery is still in pre-production - although it's certainly coming along, lots of work to do still though - and to make it harder, it's the Hobbit Fan Event today and Phil and I have tickets!  Totally crazy.  Totally shouldn't be going.  But so long as the world isn't about to end, we're going to have a blast - have some fun and then I've got to hurry back to work and sort out the catalogue etc etc etc 

Hoping to catch up with everyone's poems late Wednesday night, until then, why not get a headstart and check out the Tuesday Poem blog?