"antithetical" poems - Hello Poetry

When we think about the choices in our lives When we fight and we bicker and become bitter When we think there is only power or powerlessness If we can realize that there is power and powerlessness Then haven't we began to acquire consciousness In that instance haven't we began the process of choice That there is those who have not have given birth to this consciousness To those who have only lived powerlessness And know nothing else Haven't you owed them part of your consciousness That you have ceased to be one of them Or your mere power has denied one of them That there is no choice for them Because they haven't birthed that consciousness And if you choose power they'll remain powerless Because within you there is no loyalty, right? It is a choice predicated by an erroneous concept of self-preservation It is a treacherous dichotomy; doesn't make sense This is not an indictment of your desire not to suffer Because surely to hold power would cease your suffering But it is this type of power that thrives on the proliferation of powerlessness This conceptual understanding of what it means to have power That is not what we've come learn, but readily ascribe to That a mind and body can cultivate power That can be harvested, shared, communal For the sole purpose of the survival of the other, not the self That that can survive in this world is impossible Its antithetical to the modes of production In which our societies operate and thrive How can workers begin to derive power from their collective efforts How can workers' purchasing power equal the power of the production of their labor How can any community in any corner of the world escape The misanthropic missions of first world free trade capitalism When will we reclaim our escaping humanity When will we cease to keep feeding the system with our minds, our bodies, our labor How much longer can we become fodder, scraps, waste feeding the machine And don't think that you are safe when you have made it When you have entered the circle of dominance Because it is then when you will loose your humanity or die It is at that apex of power that your presence becomes Just as dispensable as that of the powerless Because to maintain that circle of dominance Requires a total conversion to misanthropy The rigor with which your power will be required To keep proliferating powerlessness will give no break And when you become useless, it will replace you So that we must realize that the modes of production That we allow to exploit us In powerlessness, or the semblance of power Can never safeguard our humanity How much further will we allow power to be concentrated So that soon we ourselves, or our children won't have a choice Won't have the consciousness of power just powerlessness

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Mar 31, 2013

Mar 31, 2013 at 9:49 PM UTC

emanuel-martinez

Modes of Production: Power and Powerlessness

When we think about the choices in our lives When we fight and we bicker and become bitter When we think there is only power or powerlessness If we can realize that there is power and powerlessness Then haven't we began to acquire consciousness In that instance haven't we began the process of choice That there is those who have not have given birth to this consciousness To those who have only lived powerlessness And know nothing else Haven't you owed them part of your consciousness That you have ceased to be one of them Or your mere power has denied one of them That there is no choice for them Because they haven't birthed that consciousness And if you choose power they'll remain powerless Because within you there is no loyalty, right? It is a choice predicated by an erroneous concept of self-preservation It is a treacherous dichotomy; doesn't make sense This is not an indictment of your desire not to suffer Because surely to hold power would cease your suffering But it is this type of power that thrives on the proliferation of powerlessness This conceptual understanding of what it means to have power That is not what we've come learn, but readily ascribe to That a mind and body can cultivate power That can be harvested, shared, communal For the sole purpose of the survival of the other, not the self That that can survive in this world is impossible Its antithetical to the modes of production In which our societies operate and thrive How can workers begin to derive power from their collective efforts How can workers' purchasing power equal the power of the production of their labor How can any community in any corner of the world escape The misanthropic missions of first world free trade capitalism When will we reclaim our escaping humanity When will we cease to keep feeding the system with our minds, our bodies, our labor How much longer can we become fodder, scraps, waste feeding the machine And don't think that you are safe when you have made it When you have entered the circle of dominance Because it is then when you will loose your humanity or die It is at that apex of power that your presence becomes Just as dispensable as that of the powerless Because to maintain that circle of dominance Requires a total conversion to misanthropy The rigor with which your power will be required To keep proliferating powerlessness will give no break And when you become useless, it will replace you So that we must realize that the modes of production That we allow to exploit us In powerlessness, or the semblance of power Can never safeguard our humanity How much further will we allow power to be concentrated So that soon we ourselves, or our children won't have a choice Won't have the consciousness of power just powerlessness