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.

Hey Neil DeGrasse Tyson, There's No Need to Welcome Science

Hey Neil,
just FYI
nobody need welcome science into their lives,
it's not a religion.
Like it or not
gravity doesn't care one jot

as it pulls you down.

And BTW
evolution
doesn't need your belief
or mine.
The intricacies of Darwin's theory
are more robust today than ever,
and for that
let us thank a 19th Century monk,
Watson and Crick
and a whole bunch of people
who asked questions--
even those who didn't like the answers.


For in science
belief is the antithesis,

Add caption

it is never called for.
A spectre of bias that
raises it's ugly head
at every turn.
Were this world indeed supernatural,
I'd call on you to cast your belief
into the flame,
sprinkle it with holy water,
and salt the ground.

But we live in observable
measurable
reality.
So put away your belief,
and wield the true power of science -
skepticism,
curiosity,
and wonder.

A.J. Ponder

Hi people,
I hope you enjoy your poem fix :) This one is for science, but also cautionary, because although science is amazing, and has changed the face of the earth in ways nobody could ever imagine, we can't demand belief. Because belief is antithetical to discovering the truth.

Articles like this are misleading, making science look like a religion. That's not a role science should ever fulfill. I never want people to "believe in science," or "welcome science." Science is science, it's about finding the world and how it works fascinating. It's about setting up hypotheses and knocking them down. Mostly about knocking them down! That's the fun bit. There is no "too big to fail" in science. Many huge discoveries have been made by comparative unknowns, who followed the evidence and not what they wanted to be true. Mendel, the guy who basically discovered genetics, Joseph Lister, the guy who discovered hand-washing before an operation was a good idea (despite much opposition at the time). If something seems wrong, question it, and be ready to be wrong yourself, because when science becomes a belief system it is no longer science. The themes in this poem also link to the "Reason" by John Pomfret poem I put up last week, written in the 1700's :)

The article: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/24/neil-degrasse-tyson-national-geographic-channel-startalk

For more contemporary poetry, why not check out the Tuesday Poem blog tuesdaypoem.blogspot.com

Have a great week,
A.J.

Burning

A flame

small

lost.

The wind grabs it

and it shivers -

come close,

protect it with your hands.

A flame...

a fire...

an inferno.

You gotta respect that

from a distance.

A.J. Ponder

 There's all sorts of burning happening over the last few weeks - mostly peoples money going up in power bills.  And the mash up - fire with book - not quite appropriate, but I saw the "Catching Fire" title and I thought wouldn't it be fun if I could mash it up as a book catching on fire.  It might not be perfect, but I think its worked well enough, after all I'm not exactly known for my art so there's not much of a reputation there to lose. Besides, Suzanne Collins is a great author, lots of fun.  

I hope everyone is having a great week.  And to make it even more exciting you may want to visit the Tuesday Poem hub here, or my review for A Dance with Dragons/Game of Thrones at the Rona Gallery blog here. 

A.J. Ponder's work is available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, and good Wellington bookstores