<nettime> The Centre Does Not Hold

[Allan Siegel via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

Hello Nettimers,

*The centre does not hold*
Because it never existed,
/Political Consensus/ is only a marketing label
With watered-down ingredients
And no sell-by date.

The illusionary centre doesn’t hold
Political borderlines have been blurred
Horizons of possibilities eradicated
Little remains of its blurry existence
A deceptive substance that quickly evaporates.

The mythical centre is a body with no heart
An abandoned home, a playground with no children
A distant mirage with no designated drivers
To take us there,
Only the leaders who’ve succumbed
To recurring hangovers of self-importance remain.

Meanwhile, the elders have vanished,
Hunted as criminal elements,
Carriers of the songlines of knowledge
Abducted by well dressed security agents

As the phantom centre vanishes
Google search engines blame
Scarcities of knowledge and wisdom
On severe weather conditions,
Pundits and influencers suggest
The decline in knowledge and wisdom
Is attributed to genetic defects or
Newly discovered learning disabilities.

Unevenly, the melting centre of one dimensional ideals,
Stumbles recklessly along
A never-never land of political fantasies
A WHITE-washed empty shell
Feeding the cash cows of spin doctors
Astride a shiftless commentariat,
Fawning over politician’s gushing platitudes.

We survive, We endure
A pulsating amorphous chorus of voices
Reaching beyond the splintered fencing,
OF borders and obstructions
OF damaged discarded commodities
Shouting, humming, chanting
An unconstrained chorus of possibilities and dreams
The changing colours and shapes of a humanity
Nurturing songlines, healing the wounded, imagining…

A.S. 06/11/24
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