Listen to a reading of this article:
❖
Just for fun we all pretend to be strangers.
Just for fun we pretend we don’t know each other on the street,
on the train, at the store, at the traffic light.
Just for fun we pretend we aren’t locked in ecstatic union
and briefly ignore our intimate knowledge of the primordial secrets
behind each other’s eyes.
We sit on the bus and try not to be the first to wink,
or to burst out laughing at the silliness of our game,
or to call out the goofy elephant in the room
about how we’re all pretending to be strangers
just for fun.
Two spouses pause mid-coitus to shake hands and introduce themselves.
Two twins in the womb make awkward small talk about the weather.
The thumb and the index finger avoid eye contact on the elevator.
Two slimy babies squirt into the same universe,
made from the same stuff,
and then put on masks made of mind chatter
so we can pretend that we don’t know each other.
My atoms are your atoms, and your atoms are mine.
We have danced this swirling energy orgy since before the Big Bang.
Playing positive and negative,
playing stimulus and response,
playing predator and prey,
playing mother and youngling,
playing enemies and lovers,
playing strangers on the internet,
just for fun.
I apologize, my timeless sibling,
for breaking character just this once.
Let us return now to our little game.
___________________
___________________
___________________
My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
29 responses to “Just For Fun”
….just about done reading “sapiens” by yuval harari….your poem is a great compliment to the author’s positions on our development as a species….thanx……….
Nice. Only it’s a little more than a game. If we didn’t do this, we literally go insane. Perfect is not perfect. Imperfect is; a purpose. We have this little thing called eternity to kill.
“Just for fun”
After Biden fell off his bike.
He told everyone to go take a hike.
“I may have gone splat.”
“But it’s only because, ‘I meant to do that.’”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJXU7EVXs2A
Eisenhower as US president overthrown by coupe e’tat a lot of presidents worldwide and he was the one who created the nazi CIA enabling it to become the greatest terrorist organization worldwide today.
Let’s take a moment in time where Brazil was seized by the US and CIA till today and it will be there till the end of the days.
Vargas did not commit suicide but it was the second president murdered by CIA.
“Once again, the forces and interests against the people have coordinated again and are unleashed on me.
They don’t accuse me, they insult me; they don’t fight me, they slander me and they don’t give me the right to defence. They need to suffocate my voice and prevent my action, so that I do not continue to defend, as I have always defended, the people and especially the humble. I follow the destiny that is imposed on me. After decades of domination and spoliation of international economic and financial groups, I became the leader of a revolution and I won. I started the work of liberation and established the regime of social freedom. I had to resign. I returned to the Government in the arms of the people. The underground campaign of the international groups was allied with that of the national groups revolted against the regime of guarantee of work. The extraordinary profits law was stopped in Congress. Hatred was unleashed against the justice of the revision of the minimum wage. I wanted to create national freedom in the enhancement of our wealth through Petrobras, as soon as it starts to work, the wave of agitation swells. Eletrobrás was hampered to the point of despair. They don’t want the worker to be free. They don’t want the people to be independent.
I took over the government within the inflationary aspiration that destroyed the values of work. The profits of foreign companies reached up to 500% a year. In the declaration of values of what we imported there were verified frauds of more than 100 million dollars a year. The coffee crisis came, our main product was valued. We tried to defend its price and the response was violent pressure on our economy to the point where we were forced to give in.
I have struggled month by month, day by day, hour by hour, resisting constant, incessant pressure, bearing everything in silence, forgetting everything, renouncing myself, to defend the people who are now helpless. I can give you nothing else but my blood. If the birds of prey want someone’s blood, they want to continue sucking the Brazilian people, I offer my life in holocaust. I choose this way to be always with you. When they humble you, you will feel my soul suffering by your side. When hunger knocks at your door, you will feel in your chest the energy to fight for you and your children. When they vilify you, you will feel in my thoughts the strength to react. My sacrifice will keep you united and my name will be your battle flag.
Every drop of my blood will be an immortal flame in your consciousness and will maintain the sacred vibration for resistance. I respond to hatred with forgiveness. And to those who think they have defeated me, I answer with my victory. I was a slave of the people and today I free myself to eternal life. But this people whose slave I was will no longer be anyone’s slave. My sacrifice will forever remain in your soul and my blood will be your ransom price.
I fought against the spoliation of Brazil. I fought against the dispossession of the people. I have fought with an open heart, Hatred, infamies, slander have not lowered my spirits. I gave you my life. Now I offer my death. I fear nothing. I calmly take the first step on the path of eternity and leave life to enter history.”
Getulio Vargas.
It was not Eisenhower who created the nazi CIA in 1947 but Truman (after dropping atomic bombs on Japan) with Wall Street bankers and lawyers to replace the OSS created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The CIA was provided with nazis through Operation Paperclip (1945-1959).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip
Eisenhower merely continued the same policy but it is unfair to deny Truman the paternity of that shit :o)
You are right. Thanks for tweaking.
Michael Hudson on inflation. Apparently, “Putin Price Hikes”, aka backfiring sanctions, has nothing to do with it.
http://thesaker.is/the-feds-austerity-program-to-reduce-wages/
Surprise, surprise.
“A prophet is without honor in his own country.”
Jimmy Dore needs to interview the Professor. Or Jackson Hinkle. Or both. You say you are leftists, well interview the most prominent leftist in the world today.
When the SOCIALIST Michael Hudson lectures in China, 160,000 people show up. Why is that?
Look at this:
In a statement on the occasion of World Refugee Day published by the White House on Monday, Biden said that “as a result of Russia’s war against Ukraine we recently reached a grim milestone.” He added that “according to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 100 million people are now forcibly displaced, more than at any other time in history.”
It is the well-known reinforcement of Biden’s hardcore policy over 50 years as politician – “Lie about everything”.
If I debunk it using real facts, history books available to anyone access anywhere, anytime, will I be labeled as a Russian agent?
Sounds more like a hooligan came into your birthday party after harassing and bringing havoc overall neighborhood to justify why no one came to your event just because of his presence – “It is not my fault, it is on Russia all of this. If they just stay sit and quiet while we move our NATO bases and ICBM close to them nothing this would be happening. People must believe that all our actions will not bring harm to anyone, ever.”.
Thanks for the reminder of divinity, Caity. This is just lovely and reminded me again why I follow you. ❤️
Just for fun we’ll have an international workers’ revolution.
Meanwhile, back in the old ranch, YouTube is censoring voices supporting Julian Assange:
“We have danced this swirling energy orgy since before the Big Bang …”
So what was going on before the Big Bang? That’s what I want to know.
Was there less orgiastic dancing back then? Were swirling energy particles more conservative in the sexual mores?
How many Big Bang’s have there been? If I was the bookie of the Universe I’d set the over/under at the infinite.
But how do you bet that line?
There is an under, that’s the finite, but there is no over, if you know what I mean.
Is it for “fun”, or might this be the “thinking yourself out of a paper bag” test?
Just askin’…
Meanwhile, not at DAVOS, Non WEF Alliances are forming, and getting right to work.
https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/non-wef-alliances
Michael Hudson is a tour de force, especially considering he’s 83 years old.
He thinks Russia is likely to remain a neo-liberal oligarchic kleptocracy. And so do I. There is just something about power that once you get it you leave loyalty to the nation-state behind.
That is what is so remarkable about what China is doing. They are a nation-state functioning as a nation-state, and they are alone in this role.
The reason for this Hudson believes is that the Chinese government is the only democratic one on the the planet.
Lmao … It’s beyond counter-intuitive but I am complete agreement. In the last 90 days I have spent nearly 200 hours studying China through YouTube vloggers, both ex-pat and homegrown, and do you what is a rarer sighting than a pothole, or a piece of garbage, or a hyper-modern city without perfectly kept-up parks taking up 65% of the ground space?
A cop.
It’s like they don’t need em over there, because everyone is so busy being contented they have no time for crime
I love your work. This one piece makes me cry in recognition. Thank you .
“Two spouses pause mid-coitus to shake hands and introduce themselves.”
Hahahahahahaha. Awesome.
Makes me want to write more poetry and fewer nursery rhymes.
Oh wow ! Oh yes !
Thank you, Caitlin Johnstone !
Superb stuff! Had me howling!!
You gotta go the extra mile here, Caitlin, & hug today’s folk such as John McCain types & racists too! Don’t worry, I’ve my work cut out for me as well with the banksters of this world, especially the dynasty that sits on reputed assets of $500T ±$100T, the vast majority of which have been gained by the fraud of usury. But hey! Love your enemy! Now if we all did that then we’d soon run out of enemy and then we’d be heading off into somewhere glorious to do the proper jobs (if necessary) in co-operative harmony!
Do you feel that affinity with the infinity? Like every nook & cranny of everything in the Andromeda galaxy, for a very small example? Point at anything you like and begin to realise… I am that I am, or to put it another way, …I am that, I am.
You [two] are lovely people. Look after yourselves.
OMG Caitlin Johnstone, you are so talented. Thank you, sister!
Just for fun Lithuania today blocked all transport of food and exporting goods from Russia to Kaliningrad.
It is easy to curse from afar till the storm is right in front of you, then it will not be fun anymore. One front in Ukraine, one in the Baltic States and certainly one from Poland till Odessa. Why no one is running in despair towards Spain? It is the silence before the storm.
They were pressuring Georgia to open another front, but Georgia said not again.
It seems NATO is pursuing the worst ideas, it would take a child to point this out.
The adults are busy competing for the servant of the bankers title.
I am going to have to conclude that bankers are really dumb. There must be a Pew research on that.
Scott Ritter pointed out last week that Biden considering the middle term elections which the democratic party for now is due to be overwhelmed kicked out from the political scenario might consider the idea to show strength using minions like the baltic states and Poland to pursue a more strong approach to weaken Russia. It does not make sense at all but it seems they think it will help them to move the public opinion to the nazi side leaded by US and Great Britain backed up by NATO. You see, more than a hundred days of Ukraine conflict and no signs from the empire to show ability and strength in diplomacy but military force.
It is tough to find an election strategy for a candidate who is neither dead nor alive!
Considering how far MSM went through lying ostensively about covid and ukraine, I will not be surprised to see no US elections and the rise of an official dictatorship in place dissolving congress and Supreme Court.
Pregnant possibility here, that we’re structurally united, not merely morally–that the brotherhood/sisterhood of humankind is not only an aspiration but a description. Reminds me of what some NDErs say; namely, that the golden rule is the way it actually is, not just the way things should be.
Nice Caitlin. It’s true, of course. Reminds me of the Oscar Wilde quote – “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth”
You are always filling me with a combination of solidarity and awe. That is such a great illustration of the truth of life and the irony of the ignorance of our masses.
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly.
Now I have to start going back and reading your poetry, dammit. I’m here for the rational thinking, bro, stop it with the mission creep. I’m kidding, wonderful work, more like this, please.