The Crystal Ball(s)

The Crystal Ball(s)

"Change you can believe in"
is a phrase that forestalls
what it pretends to convey.
It's an oxymoron.  Change
implies action, while belief
is the province of the preacher,
the magician, the con man, the ad man
and the politician, no less than
the lothario trying to work his way in
to the virgin's as-yet-unsoiled pants.

Belief is an ephemeral
and passive condition,
based on submission to the prestidigitator
through the suspension of reason,
often in the face of obvious evidence
of an opposite intention, rather
like the empty, impotent vessel
of its relative, hope.  The hype
surrounding these sleights of hand
suffices to forestall any relevant action
on the proposition in question
by means of the theft of trust,
another concept entirely,
which, like respect,
demands evidence of intent
based on past actions
as a reliable indicator
of future behavior.

Neither trust nor respect
can be given.  They must
be earned.