Jack Pelham

Once fake money is introduced into an economy, the people who print it have nearly-unlimited power to do whatever they’d like to remake the society as they want it to be. And this leaves few easily-traceable footprints other than inflation—and inflation may be convincingly explained to many as the result of other less-alarming causes. Indeed, few will be willing to believe that anyone could play a game at that level with their society, and will be glad to lay the blame on something other than what it really is.

They will invite you up front
And hand you the mic
And let you have a go of it
Hoping they have found
A new champion
And judging the matter
By little more than the level
Of the audience’s enthusiasm.

He who thinks that authority on Earth
Is a stick to be wielded cavalierly
Has got another thing coming.

He reposes in humor
As if on a kind sabbatical
From weightier matters
In deference to the sensibilities
Of a fragile world
Who can at present
Handle nothing more.

Some have gotten themselves so emotionally conditioned that they simply cannot endure the amount of drama that it would take to improve their lives, or anyone else’s. Thus, they rule themselves out from the improvements, opting to walk away from any chance of improvement, rather than to risk going through a hard emotional time to get there. They would rather endure a situation they hate than to have to endure the emotions involved in change—even change for the better. Did you hear what I said? Even change for the better.

They are slaves, then, to the status quo, and if the status quo is upset for them and they have no choice of maintaining it, their priority will not be in choosing which new option would make for the most excellent life, but which option makes for the least emotional strain. This is because, when it comes down to it, they do believe that the most excellent life is the one with the fewest upset emotions along the way.

So they will walk away from some very excellent possibilities that seem too emotionally expensive to them. And having walked away from all that, they will walk away from you, too, if you’re the sort to risk walking the gauntlet for something better.

It will gall you to know
That I can sense your gaslighting
Even before I have figured out
The particular trick you’ve got
Wrapped up in it.

You are not as opaque
As you believe—
Nor I as stupid.

As comes the morning
So comes the Spring