Gratitude

Is it any wonder?

We’re oh so grateful when asked to choke down yet another poison pill. Our friends, who claim to care for us, tell us it’s for our own good. Originally it was wars killing millions of brown people far away, or selling things we need to corporations wrapped up in profit frenzy then gratefully pay the higher prices forever after. Rents go up and wages don’t. Rich people’s assets worth more while most of us struggle. We’re so grateful.

They smashed our unions for our own good. All that working collectively to make sure rising productivity meant rising wages would not do. Instead an empty food bank on every corner and endless gratitude is the order of the day. We can eat dust while the spiv in the suit smiles in front of empty shelves. Be grateful for the cardboard largesse built on our backs and those of even poorer people far away.

We’re too stupid to look after ourselves. Be grateful our betters can tell us how to live our lives. They help us so much that they can’t but help themselves to the little we have left.

I’m so grateful to be told I have legitimate concerns after they told me frightened refugees were to blame. Powerless folks with holes in their clothes must be the ones who filled my water with shit and nearly bankrupted me because I tried to warm my family. Who else could it be?

I’m so grateful my kids have been shackled with massive debt for an empty education. Playing a rigged game that’s the only game allowed. We’re so grateful to huddle around the last Christmas candle while the vampire parasites in their glass walled castles suck our lives away.

The frightened lost boys’ drunken marching legion had a point. They’re so grateful too. Years of neglect and being ignored takes a toll. A shame the grifting clowns that spurred them on work for the parasites. Instead imagine the lost boys shutting things down until Palestine is free, demanding hospitals are properly funded and fat cats go hungry. Instead the vampires’ pets dance a lying jig while the boys cheer their own destruction. So grateful. You can’t eat a flag and it won’t keep the rain off for long. So be grateful the flag waving will keep you warm, at least for a while. The clowns go back to their mansions and look back with contempt.

We’re so ungrateful we protest the murder of children. We should know better. Our betters, indeed, have been helping children die and making money from it for a long time. How dare we say we cannot bear their complicity and our unwitting permission. So ungrateful they lock us up for words while their deeds go unpunished. They push so hard because it’s fragile and if we push back maybe we can break through to something better. It’s ungrateful to think like that.

I’m so grateful and can’t wait to fully express my gratitude. I’m sure you’re the same.