And since mothers now work to make up
increasing profit taken from wages of fathers,
children are often left alone and unguarded
to sit alienated, anxious and wanting
getting much of their nurture by nursing
at the ubiquitous TV tit,
which disperses only the addictive milk
of corporate ejaculate,
driving small children back
to the sacred, sacrificial mall altar
where they give up the rest of their selves
to the holy corporate Uber Father
self silenced
in the quest for eternal youth,
to gain the illusion of status,
for the refuge of sedatives or stimulants
to create an artificial happiness
to get what they're told they deserve
to relieve the quiet desperation,
to find love in the acquisition of goods,
for the reward of instant gratification
for the waxen mask of faux beauty,
to transfer loyalty to brands,
to compete in the search for identity,
to amass enough feel like a man
for products as opposed to friendships,
for the feeling of being included,
to keep them amused as they're being abused
making sure curiosity is neutered.
Thus market needs supplant personality
by strip mining children of all that is personal,
implanting needs created by advertising
making them vassals of all things commercial,
clamoring to be filled with what the market purveys,
but these false needs can never be satisfied.
The constant effort to do so creates profit,
and that's the whole point of the enterprise.
There are more TV drug-delivery systems
in American homes than there are residents.
Hundreds of channels inject it 24/7
promoting non-existent TV characters as friends
to be imprinted on, bonded with and emulated
in the purchase/pursuit of the American Dream,
prompted by longings both real and created,
but both of which fulfill corporate needs.
Children are sitting ducks for the sale of junk
sold as a way off the island of solitary confinement
on which the perfect consumer, cut from the community,
lives a faux life that he is resigned to,
built on maximum conformity via pre-selected choices
of identical products that ensure profitable uniformity,
since mass production creates massive profits
in the futile struggle to buy style and identity.
And rather than educate, schooling trains children
to take their place in the assembly line of those seeking
the elusive and non-negotiable American lifestyle
as if it were worthy of achievement.
Children are schooled to
sit down
shut up
ask permission
and pledge an unquestioning oath
to xenophobia and imperialist aggression
in service to the enrichment of the already rich
disguised as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
as they provide the fodder,
both consumer and cannon,
which makes possible empire,
both military and financial.
