Industrialism

Industrialism...

by Tony Ryals

It started out in England,
On a coal seam that seemed to have no end,
And had repercussions neither Adam
Smith nor Carl Marx could comprehend,
And while we fought over the delusions
of communism and capitalism - it grew,
It was industrialism that always united the two,
Now we pump oil from the earth,
And mine fossil fertilizer to give us birth,
As Bob Dylan said, "None of them along the line
know what any of it's worth",
Fossil carbon is burned, and metal is turned,
just as in England in the 18th century,
We continue with our entropy,

This basic technology,
Is still our philosophy,
Not communism or capitalism,
This technology so noble,
Even built Chernobyl,
Fossil carbon is burned,
And metal is turned,
This addiction now to oil,
Takes us more to foreign soil,
This world industrialism,
Is a new colonialism,
That can only lead to schism,
Strategic minerals outside our boundaries,
Lead o geopohtical quandaries,
Yet we go on squandering

What we should be monitoring,
Fossil carbon is burned and metal is turned,
Giving more power to the industrialists- we call it free trade,
Only magnifies mistakes we've already made,
China now rips coal from the ground as fast as it can;
Mexico pumps oil to ship to Japan,
The rest of Asia and South America have the same plan,
It ain't communism or capitalism - its industrialism,
It builds freeways for our cars,
And computers for our wars,
General Eisenhower's military industrial complex,
Remains our Frankenstein - our Tyrannosaurus Rex,
Those who would say we're in a post industrial society,
Should be tested for sobriety,
Or at least show a little more piety,
To their big, unstable brother - industrialism,