Feb 10, 2022
Seize the Means of Service
A poem about how to do what to do next.
Seize the means of service said the wizard to the Earth
Though we must do it carefully to show them what it’s worth
Think about the place you work and money that you’ve made
Think of what you’ve done for us yet how you’ve always paid
You stock the shelves that hold the food we need to stay alive
You drive around with sirens on while helping us survive
You do not work a nine to five — shifts split or long as hell
Mandated corporate culture through a ritual or spell
You serve these roles across the world in every single nation
Increasingly the victims of cutbacks or automation
When they are always right that means that you are always wrong
Though they never seem to say that part when their turn comes along
Privilege is a thing, it seems, even among the poor
So use your great experience to show them something more
Use your place to take away the excess they achieve
The markets lie about your lives and futures, I believe.
They may have the spreadsheets but they haven’t got the tools
They will see the truth of things, they know you aren’t fools.
They see that things have gone awry. They know the battle’s lost.
They know they cannot fight with you. They understand the cost.
So rise above them gently to show them that you’re strong.
Take back only what you need to prove where they went wrong.
Any single moment of any single day
Could be the time when we all see this madness go away.
If we only do what they have done to us but back at them
Then those we love to something like this struggle we’ll condemn.
Just another pointless looping of this cycle we abhor
Unless of course the scale demands this end forevermore
So we need to do it gently though we mustn’t waste our time
To fail may bring us glory — to hide would be a crime.
Meet them as their equals in the systems they abuse.
Show them what you’ve got and what you haven’t got to lose.
If they don’t want to go along with what you have in mind
Show them that they’ve trained you to be strong when you’re combined.
30 people, maybe less, could take over a store.
Reallocate the goods inside — but kindly I implore.
Take apart the superstores one brick at a time
The goods will keep on coming if the moneys doing fine.
How can they expect to travel when no one will move their things?
How annoyed they’d be to answer the phone every time it rings.
How dismayed they’d be to never drink another mochaccino.
How critical this labour is. They know and know that we know.
And not just the barista but the one who grew the bean
And the one who made the cup and those who always die off screen.
This world is now a hologram — magnificent at scale
But missing some important bits and often prone to fail
They have to keep us terrified for terror’s what they fear
Though things we fight the most against invariably appear
So we have to do this gently or we will not win this fight
And we haven’t many chances so we have to get it right
Talk about your options and think about each other
Use all your might while lovingly protecting one another
Seize the means of service said the wizard to the Earth
Though we must do it carefully to show them what it’s worth.
Thanks for reading this far. I think this might be what finally gets me removed from the internet. Or worse? I appreciate the leniency I’ve been shown as I’ve said everything I’ve said and done everything I’ve done for the past few years.
This was built to help you: https://github.com/EricLortie/Church-of-Earth-Platform-MVP
This is how it could be used but not how it needs to be used: https://twitter.com/EricLortie/status/1484261268982743043
Have faith in each other.
