Dia-Gnosis
It’s ironic how those touting tolerance
So singularly lack the trait they tout—
Can a want of self-awareness account for it?
Appeals to reason roundly fail.
Indeed they seem inimical to logic:
They cry “Love!” and “Tolerance!”
While spewing hate and exclusion.
Can they not see their hypocrisy?
Have they no sense of the disconnect
Between their stated aims and real deeds?
The oracle said: Know thyself—
Self-awareness is the beginning of wisdom.
But the time indeed is out of joint—
They have become so self-absorbed
They no longer see each other
Except as virtual reflections,
Set pieces in a world reduced to
A kind of one-character play,
Where they are both star and cast…
And has this not a longtime been
How we define insanity?
Welcome to the Cyber Dark Ages!—
Where people sitting side by side oblivious
And heedless only communicate in tweets,
Where real human relationships have been coopted
By narcissistic digitized connections.
The divide between the actual and the virtual
Is blurred and then disintegrated, the sheer
Integrity of concepts like reality and fictiveness
Overwhelmed in a tsumami of silicon blandishments.
And this enslavement to technology is integrally
Part of the growing lack of compassion and charity
That more and more usurps our public discourse.
For the “elephant in the room” may yet turn out to be
That rough beast that slouched towards Bethlehem
To be born... here -- now-- among us.
Copyright © J P Marmaro | Year Posted 2018
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