Paranoid Planet (A Poem)
The following poem was inspired by the film featured in my previous post, Alternative 3 (1977) and focuses on the theme of conspiracy theories. That very theme often forms a staple of many science fiction films and stories. Conspiracy theories have always been with us and will no doubt continue to do so as long as human civilization exists.
There can be no question that conspiracies and collusion exist in one form or another in politics, business, international relations, the work place through to the interactions between everyday people. No surprises there when power, wealth, influence and advantage are up for grabs.
Healthy skepticism and questioning of the status-quo ought to be encouraged along with the essential work of whistle-blowers and investigative journalism. Even the forming of conspiracy-type theories has its place when questioning the activities of the rich and powerful and the institutions they represent, particularly when their decisions have such important ramifications.
A problem arises when all sense of logic and clear thinking is replaced by an easy and over-simplified process of explaining reality which of itself doesn’t require all that much thinking and analysis. It is a very short step from viewing people and events with suspicion to developing something akin to a case of full-blown paranoia. Both in the past and even today, we have witnessed regimes and systems that run on fostering belief in conspiracy theories while a sense and climate of paranoia is used to maintain power and control.
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Paranoid Planet
In a galaxy not so far, far away,
There existed a world some might say
That was gripped by nervous apprehension,
Forged by a kind of mass paranoid delusion.
Many of its denizens awoke drenched in sweat
And sought solace in the clickety-clack beat
Of small ball bearings clutched in a hand,
Hoping to summon a Queeg-like inner command.
For they alone were in possession of the Truth,
Which they tightly clutched Golem-like forsooth
To their breast lest their ‘precious’ be taken
Leaving them lying in a land of lies forsaken.
Official science: viewed with denial and distrust;
Fake media: treated with contempt and disgust;
Big Pharma: sailed a sea of sickness and death;
Big government: elites that lied with every breath.
There were no weapons of mass destruction!
Had they merely been victims of manipulation?
The loner shooter verdict was a convenient lie!
A neat conspiracy complete with a dead fall guy?
Clickety-clack - checked for any Reds under the bed;
Clickety-clack - why so many vaxxers dropped dead?
Clickety-clack – they had been replaced by illegal aliens!
Clickety-clack – damn murders, rapists and barbarians!
It was so clear then: the ‘facts’ seemed to fit the theory;
They’d merely been the victims of a big conspiracy
Weaved and wrought by a cabal of THEM and THEY,
To better control what the rest think, do and say!
And from what source did the ‘facts’ originate?
Why, from the tree of TRUTH on which proliferate
An abundance of made-to-order ‘facts,’
Cherry-picked and swallowed among force fed acts.
Beware Lunatic Lefties and their Commie ways,
Fear the Rabid Far Right’s fascist praise;
To hell with Democratic Western values
Each knew who was to blame and who would lose.
A rallying call went out for revolution and civil war
Against THEM and THEY and the family next door,
For they were liars, thieves and weavers of conspiracies,
While the rest submitted content to live life on their knees.
And so the revolution came but would never go
While its vanguard’s power would continue to grow
By the spreading of ever more conspiracies,
Fed with ‘facts’ and ‘truth’ made to match their theories.
Could A.I. offer salvation with a logical solution?
“I’m sorry Dave, there is no possible resolution
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do!
I'm half crazy, all for the love of you!”
Clickety-clack!
At last the resolution had been found!
Not a theory, but a solid FACT true and sound.
Yes! Yes! It was all part of a conspiracy,
A conspiracy of lies and disloyalty, you see.
Clickety-clack!
A key did exist, of that they could be sure.
A search was made in order to procure
The key, but alas it couldn’t be located.
The evil of pilfering cannot be overstated!
Some claimed the key was imaginary,
But with precise math and geometry
The exact weight was arrived at by degrees,
Of a quart of delicious strawberries!
Clickety-clack!
Oh, yes, there was indeed a key
The key was not imaginary, you see.
It was all part of a giant conspiracy;
With rumors spread and acts of disloyalty
Ah, but the strawberries, that revealed the plot
Implicating the whole disloyal treacherous lot!
A duplicate key to the freezer had to be the key;
The truth was plainly obvious, don’t you all see?
Clickety-clack!
Liberal lefties and their socialist ways,
Neo-Nazis "Sieg Heiling" glory days,
Tech Bros blowing a big financial bubble,
Arms makers making bigger fields of rubble.
Climate skeptics with their head in the sand,
Climate science and globalism walking hand-in-hand.
Illuminati, artificial intelligence, New World Order,
And illegal immigrants crossing over the border.
Clickety-clack!
Corporations and governments did their little dance,
While those below vainly hoped for their chance.
So don’t you now see that there was indeed a key,
To a global conspiracy that’s more than a mere theory?
**********
From our own little roundish world signals emanated,
Reaching as far that foolish flat world, but all too late,
For all it had been sucked into a giant black hole
Of conspiracy theories that had spun out of control.
Clickety-clack!
