Murmur #7 (Dissent)

Since the beginning of democracy,

It has been there.

In the sixties and seventies

We chained ourselves to machines

We protested with slogans –

Make love not war

Ban the bomb

No nukes…

And we grew our hair.

The eighties and nineties came

We shouted it in our music

Punk

Grunge

Techno, and

Rap

We threw away old music conventions

Made it our own and screamed our angst

The two thousands arrived

We whispered

No shouting from rooftops this time

Or from Wall Street windows

Nine eleven.

Terror quietened the murmur

But didn’t stop it.

We spoke softly of it in homes

And workers clubs

And it simmered in our minds

And now the twenty tens

Our phones remind us

Nowhere is free of the murmur.

It’s read by tourists

While sipping cocktails

Served by underpaid indigenous workers

It’s tweeted from exotic locations

Usually only concerned

With cocaine and flesh.

And why is this murmur encouraged?

Because the murmur of dissent

Creates the dissenter

And the dissenter is easily bought.

Once you have enough dissenters

You have the ultimate tool…

Power.