CON iS of U and
ME
by Ray Fuller
It all began fine,
with a simple presumption,
About what is meant by the act of
consumption:
‘Ingestion of food’ is the
meaning we take …
But we eat our own words, when we’ve
made a mistake,
And for love we are hungry, when lonely
we be,
And if trying things out, why, we suck it
and see.
We can chew over things when we can’t
quite decide,
And if all else then fails we can swallow
our pride.
This stretching of metaphor may seem
excessive
But ‘tis nothing compared with new
notions ‘progressive’.
I heard on the wireless, it quite
outraged me:
We no longer watch but consume our
TV.
An audience that views it
is now a has-been,
For we nightly devour the
flickering screen.
This medium has not our intelligence
tested:
No matter what’s broadcast, it’s
only ingested.
To terms economic the human condition
Has now been reduced without asking
permission.
We’re no longer persons with person-like
smiles,
But numbers in ledgers and computer files.
We’ve all become pawns in the
businessman’s game,
And the unchallenged god Economic’s
to blame.
There’s one thing we’re good
for, if I’ve got it right,
Consuming, consuming from morning to
night.
The more that we do it, no matter what
rank,
The wider the grins on the way to the
bank.
Maternity wards are a marketeer’s
dream –
Brand new consumers all coming on stream.
To die of consumption was once much
lamented,
Today with a medal you would be presented.
Producers, consumers we’re on the
same wheel,
A merry-go-round which just makes your
head reel:
The faster it turns, the harder to stop
it,
For the faster it turns, the greater the
profit.
It’s now quite established - to say
it I’m loath -
Success of a nation is measured in growth
Of Gross National Product, friend, and
nothing less,
Not joy, not fulfillment, not real
happiness.
Yes, gross is the word
for this prev’lent obsession,
And gross is the state we’ll be in
at confession,
Consuming all goods and all services too,
From Art, Books, Chiropody right down to
Zoo.
Will it lead us into a Renaissance-like
flowering,
This current concern with relentless
devouring?
Or must it all end, and it only seems fit,
In a great heap of something that rhymes
well with ‘it’.
Or yet could it end – it would cause
quite a bother,
In a cannibal state of consuming each
other?
No, when we pass on and our coffin they
seal,
‘Tis the worms in the earth that’ll
have the last meal,
And these words will be writ on our stone
at entombing:
Achieved not that much…but was
great at consuming.
So its time we rejected economists’
rule,
For far too long now we’ve been ta’en
for a fool,
The ‘law’ of consumption is
simply not true,
For it’s not what’s taken in,
friend, but rather it’s … who. |
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