Be planetary

Lights of New York City, Ernst Haas, 1970s

It feels completely ridiculous that I’m a willing participant, gazing at the purple and pinks in the shadow of a bank-sponsored skyline. “Unite against the establishment!™ (while drones transmit the images to a server farm in the valley for a culture that will eat its own insides.)” Oh, they wouldn’t be your friend if you weren’t worth something. They wouldn’t be your friend if it wasn’t worth it, if you didn’t have something they could take. Take a long look at the billboards that smother the air ‘til you can’t ignore ‘em and glamorize department store crust-punk-chic ‘cause Satan’s trending up and it’s Fashion Week but this is not a movement. It’s just careful entertainment for an easy demographic in our sweatshop denim jackets and we’ll wonder, “What just happened?!” when the world becomes Manhattan where the banks steal the apartments just to render them abandoned. We’re not stupid people but this financial oppression has got everyone believing all that we can do is nothing ‘cause we organize through avenues they lace with advertisements so the ones we try to rage against are still lining their pockets. Oh, they wouldn’t be your friend if you weren’t worth something.

Pink Sony Trinitron