unsocialized

To teach Americans to wear a mask
so others need not be hospitalized,
has manifestly been too much to ask;
they're blithely unconcerned who lives, who dies.
As if a government should have no role
in advocating for the Public Health,
where corporations wield the real control
and all that truly matters is their wealth.
In Milton Friedman's narrow universe
morality's accorded zero weight.
Infecting innocents is no way worse
than dancing badly on a second date.
When money's the sole measure of what's real
it's inefficiency to care, or feel.

going down!

Trump's cultists foundered in their little boats
when richer guys in bigger boats roared past.
Grim allegory of the way they vote:
not their own interests, but for the ass

who loves the poorly-educated marks.
Unfeeling merchant of fake remedies
for ailments he foists on them in the dark
as long as they adore him on their knees.
The minions who'd install Trump on a throne
seem fixed on bringing embryos to birth.
No broad philosophy to call their own
acknowledges another human's worth.
Those laws--like"Gravity"--they jeer as fake
condemn them to the bottom of a lake.

amoral

Transactional relationships suffice

If you're a rich schlub looking to get laid.
No one has value, but each has her price
And one can always buy a passing grade.
Roy Cohn built a career within the mob
And mentored Donald in corruption's ways.
Morality had no place in that job;
nobody's wrong if he's the one who pays.
With no internet compass of his own,
He trusts one's worth the price for which he's bought.
Condemned to walk his  joyless road alone,

Trump lies awake in dread of getting caught.
No manly honor curbed his urge to steal
false authorship for "The Art of the Deal".

treyf

Isaiah knew Rubashkin to a tee,
contemptuous of workers in his pay,
a Bronze-Age specimen of prophecy
as apt as ever, to this present day.
When Mammon's dearer than his fellow man,
the stranger, and the orphan in the street
are tools that he'll abuse, because he can
to sell what he purports is kosher meat.
His acts betray no ethical design;
morality's a word he leaves at shul.
As with his fellow, so with the Divine
too privileged to mind the Golden Rule.
When such a gonif's backed by leading Jews,
eschewing meat's a protest more will choose.

sic transit gloria mundi

young Donald had no morals of his own
it's not for him, this so-called 'Golden Rule'
a perfect acolyte to old Roy Cohn
when he got out of Military School
Machiavelli's prince ought to be wise
and learn from everything that went before
but Cohn showed power could be built on lies
and waging each encounter like a war
with Kellyanne atop his noise machine
antagonistic to the open Press
he orchestrates each entrance for a scene
but every exit leaves a stinking mess
the monster at our helm of Ship of State
will bring to ruin much that had been great

hospitality

the Levite's concubine replays Sodom
where hospitality's turned on its head
no matter where the stranger might come from
he'll find no sanctuary in his bed
ten righteous men could justify a town
a sacerdotal mission to the folk
but one would see his ethics trampled down
'til all gets purged in brimstone, fire and smoke
Homeric themes transcend the tongue we speak
respect for strangers grounds society
as much for Israelite as for the Greek
to treat them ill is grave impiety
back home in Ithaka, Ulysses burned
foul brimstone where a stranger had been spurned

poor role model

Trump dares his creditors to go to court
compelling him to pay the money due
content they can't afford to prove the tort
for less than they're expending just to sue
exactly how he thinks diplomacy
could work if no one meant to keep his word
confronts the voter as a mystery
his candidacy's utterly absurd
his diction's childish, and his ethics, lax
he hung out with the miscreants at school
and decades later, he still cheats at tax
the Donald disavows the Golden rule
time and again, his ventures turn to shit
but some can't see he's morally unfit

values voters

like cancers, Trumps grow on society
instead of mothers' milk, they pump out bile
resources others pay for, they want free
rapacity's their signature lifestyle
they'll steal from anyone outside their tribe
the only social group where they belong
devout Hegelians, they don't subscribe
to any universal sense of "wrong"
"It takes a village" Hillary expressed
her static vision of communal life
but Donald boasts that only he knows best
dictating terms to each successive wife
Roy Cohn laughs last, he took the lad to school
and left the world this antisocial tool

values voters

like cancers, Trumps grow on society
instead of mothers' milk, they pump out bile
resources others pay for, they want free
rapacity's their signature lifestyle
they'll steal from anyone outside their tribe
the only social group where they belong
devout Hegelians, they don't subscribe
to any universal sense of "wrong"
"It takes a village" Hillary expressed
her static vision of communal life
but Donald boasts that only he knows best
dictating terms to each successive wife
Roy Cohn laughs last, he took the lad to school
and left the world this antisocial tool

corrupted texts

triumphalism warps our teaching texts
real history includes what we've done wrong
the causes get divorced from the effects
mere lyrics in a silly children's song
internment camps must never be forgot
what in good conscience no law could allow
how farmers had to leave their crops to rot
and sweat the war-years out in the hoosgow
if we're the sov'reigns here, we need to read
the sins our fathers wrought, not just the good
ideals they didn't manifest in deed
although they knew what it was that they should
the whitewashed version helps kids sleep at night
but doesn't educate them to what's right

values voters

lord Byron died in Greece, to oust the Turk
for Shelley, revolution starts right here
advancing rights for those who have to work
against rapacious banks and overseers
romantic poets sought to legislate
the ethics for a whole society
what statutes can't compel or motivate
still necessary if we're to live free
but now, the marketers are in control
Enlightenment's sun's set; we're left in night
where money in the bank's the only goal
amoral arbiters of what is right
where Mammon reigns, there are no other rules
a simple system that appeals to fools

realpolitik

for Hegel, genocide defines a "win"
where none survives, there's no one to accuse
life's victors can't be too concerned with sin
where stakes are lethal if they were to lose
morality's the refuge of the weak
who'd bind the strong in self-imposed restraint
perversely finding virtue in the meek
misrepresenting martyrs to be saints
a feral world's the prize for one who's strong
as innocent as Nature sketched by Hobbes
unless if fails, no violence is wrong
and justice is administered by mobs
no higher goal than keeping death deferred
permits no meaning in this life absurd

two Judaisms

re-plotting God, what had been "up" is "in"
there's no One in the sky to keep the books
we're on our own, defining "crime" and "sin"
autonomy's more awesome than it looks
no meddling God intrudes to work His will
eternal laws run steadfast on their tracks
no Devil gets the blame for those who kill
this universe gets by on just the facts
responsibility's an awesome weight
that children shirk as ofen as they can
how grand to be the masters of our fate
if once we'll wear the yoke to be a man
morality comes only from inside
once we've grown up enough to no more hide       

situational

for Hegel, that which prospers must be right
and scolding those in power does no good
the only argument that counts is might
one'd be a fool to lose sleep over "should"
no ethics are invariant with time
no merits count against something that works
aesthetics are a hill he spurns to climb
and he'll crown any winners 'though they're jerks
what Nixon did--in his eyes--can't be bad
except the slimy bastard did get caught
a president impeached was what was sad
because one prosecutor can't be bought
now Hillary would bring Kissinger back
to play the moral compass that she lacks

bounds

to speak aloud what's better left unsaid
if not the law, still violates good taste
the snarky monologue inside your head
corrodes society when aired in haste
a penal code can only stake the lines
but ethics have to rule on what's inside
the Law's too blunt a tool to make such fine
discriminations with a brush so wide
no legislature can prescribe what's good
while leaving citizens to live lives free
it lays out what one can't, not what one should
or risks devolving into tyranny
Free Speech is guaranteed because it's dear
yet what it means is anything but clear

in the long run

James Hanson warns one must keep honest books
end subsidies for ev'ry power stream
each kilowatt costs way more than it looks
we can't pretend that coal makes only steam
extractive industries made the few rich
their costs were sloughed as externalities
our planet's now careening towards the ditch
we dug in the delusion waste was free
and fission plants could turn out even worse
'til we can safely store atomic waste
if starship earth becomes our glowing hearse
we'll rue at leisure what we wrought in haste
what's not sustainable's never ok
we burn our children's tomorrows today