by Claude Clayton Smith
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| But woke capitalism is a paper tiger. Companies embrace identity and cultural inclusion as a way to expand their market share to new communities while obscuring their raw political power and the ruthless underpinning realities of shareholder capitalism. Elites on the right, meanwhile, know very well that it is a paper tiger but are more than happy to play along with a shuck and jive that allows them to wield “woke” as a cudgel against the left—and for some voters, it does the vital job of stoking resentment. (Graphic by Brandon Celi) —Lydia Polgreen, The New York Times, July 12, 2023 |
They call us Homo sapiens but we
are no such thing. Homo consumo is what
we are—dumb dogs that chase our tails with glee
and gladly sniff the rank capitalist butt
that shits in the face that licks it, absolves itself
of sin, and crassly fouls America’s soul.
Got that? Harsh words, I know, knocked from the shelf
without Roget to soften. Life was whole
in early years on planet Earth—when all
survival meant was food and shelter, not
an endless senseless cycle of corporate gall.
Now comes a new human sort—Homo rot.
The economic life that fails to share
will never cure the ills that it lays bare.
Professor Emeritus of English, Ohio Northern University, Claude Clayton Smith is the author of eight books and co-editor/translator of four. His work has been translated into five languages, including Russian and Chinese. His first adventure as a solo editor—Gauntlet in the Gulf: The 1925 Marine Log & Mexican Prison Journal of William F. Lorenz, MD—was published in March of 2023. His degrees include an MFA from the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.
