Just One Word
In dire times such as these,
Ushered in by a viral worldwide financial crisis
The likes of which few still remember, from '29,
Individuals, presidents and prime ministers, nations
Can't afford to rattle their sabers,
Peacock-strut their hubristic designs of global domination,
For fear of having them fly back, in their faces,
Bloody their noses, blind their eyes,
Send them slinking into history's cages and prison cells.
Take the U.S. and Russia, as recent flagrant cases:
Two formidable countries vying for nationalistic greatness;
Two leaders suffering from delusions of unilateral superiority —
The Übermenschen theory of power, honed to a fine point.
Bush has taken only eight years,
To dismantle America's vast reserves of goodwill and capital,
Vladimir Putin a mere two months,
To destabilize Russia's relationships with Europe and the West,
Cripple, by 60 percent, his country's treasury.
Indeed, in these days of instantaneous interfacing
Between people and states and machines,
When virtual reality is virtually indistinguishable from reality
And not any one of us can take a breath,
Or mutter the mildest expletive under it,
Without permanently disturbing the fragile global balance,
It takes just a single hastily-thought-through or knee-jerk word
Or needless invasion of an innocuous Iraq or Georgia
To seed doubt, anxiety, panic, in the minds of six billion souls,
Rip apart their Achilles tendon of trust,
Amplify suspiciousness that looms over them,
And send them back, beyond feudal states, to unlit caves.
10/10/08
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