The World They Made You Believe In
Your beliefs are formed by a hand that is not attached to your body.
I remember being in my 20s. Life was hand to mouth, week by week. Just getting by. Any new injection of dollars was like a gun being pulled from the back of my head and the assailant sitting back in his chair to think about it.
I think many reading this can relate. First or third world. The pressure is always on. Money is our purpose. Not to get it. No. That’s a symptom. It’s about a system that monetizes us. We exist as a number in a ledgerbook, in a margin.
Food prices, all prices now increasing. Everywhere, land, real estate crazy expensive. Debt just a way for the elites to print more money which ultimately always recycles back to them. It’s hard. Steinbeck if living now would agree.
I’m not going to get into specifics, just want to introduce this poem below. And for all of us to begin a journey of discovering more about how we are being used as pawns on the chessboard of someone else’s life. Let’s take that gun out of their hands permanently. Aim for that - there are ways.
I found this poem stuffed in one of my Bukowski anthologies. Scribbled in the margins.
This World They Made You Believe In
Listen man,
I’m going to
take it
easy on ya,
give it to you straight
— they just want it all.
Not enough
you scrapping for change
the end of each week.
Not enough
you’re working 3 jobs and
don’t have time to
kick back with your kids.
Not enough
you haven’t enough years left
to pay them back
the money owed on your credit card.
Not enough
you’re sitting inside, mask on.
Not enough
you pay your taxes and
buy, buy, buy as you’re told.
Not enough
you’ve never broke a law
and buy the medicine
your good doctor prescribes.
No, listen man.
They are coming for more.
They want it all.
They’ll suck you dry,
then say you just weren’t
cut out for it,
this world
they made you believe in.
A good piece David... Early 'Matrix'
"Fear builds it's phantoms which are more fearsome than reality itself"... Jawahalal Nehru