we lose common sense and follow fear

 

coarseness besets us

there are finer qualities to our nature,

those that Thoreau compared to the bloom of fruit,

that the coarseness of our culture

often can't even see, let alone nurture,

when the going get tough,

or we convince ourselves it's tough,

or social media and demagogues convince us it's tough,

we submit to fear and the reptile brain,

parts of us that enabled us to survive

when real danger beset us,

now oligarchs casually use our fears

to increase their share of the pie,

so that one person's worth can be more 

than the combined wealth of half the country,

they can convince us that the "other" is out to get us,

too often we lose our common sense

and swallow the Kool-Aid we are spoon-fed 

by social media in bots and malicious AI,

we are lost in our weaknesses,

and we lose the best of who we can be

when we follow the worse of those before us.

by Henry H. Walker

January 27, ‘25