(Originally posted, as a comment, by Owen Paine, but too good to forget. Owen is notoriously an admirer of the eloquent and laconic Archy, and his characteristic mode of presentation has been respectfully preserved. -- Editor)

"what if the People are too stupid to know their own best interests?"

do you know your "own best interests"?

i doubt i do

aren't best interests forever
over the horizon of social thought?

we can
only know what has been discovered
by our collective actions, right?


in fact
i hold the possibilities
contained
in our ignorance of what's best for us
to be ultimately
in
we the People's favor

---------------
here's
my piss off credo:


in the sublime notion
of people's gubmint
we have
the only sound application
of white america's
favorite moral imperative

"take responsibility"

taken itself
to its own highest station
where
it actually has social application
that is to say
at the level of the whole people
the wholesomeness
of this imperative
is acutely and self evidently true

the people ever and always
by their collective actions
and or inactions
self determining

whether they
know it or not
like it or not
fear it or not

whether they back slide
or not
along the way
stumble
turn in circles
run from their destiny
like
a drunk from pink elephants

they... we...
are bound to reach eden eventually
we just can't stop it from happening
we got no exit from our "quest"
even if
we must for a very very long spell
and then some
pay for the loops and knottings
in our passage
with nasty installments of blood
and pain
and constant ground rent of misery

have faith
in the one thing
we are familiar with
that's actually
worthy of our faith

the people

we are our own
gods and avatars
devils dick heads and dolls

always almighty
right or wrong
in
active marching mode
or on our knees
in passive worship of our illusions

have hope
in the workings of endless time

we will discover and rediscover
every one of our possibilities
over and over
and
in the fullness of time
our bataan march
thru incarnations
of bondage and liberation
will so much wise us up
that i
owen claymore paine
believe
enough in fact in our capacity
for self rule
that eventually
our millenia of class folly
will serve as a jest
among our distant
eloi offspring