"empires make their own reality"

Lysenko kept his Kremlin patron rapt
and Josef Stalin wanted to believe
duress would make plants mutate and adapt
environment determines more than seeds.
But crops don't care for ideology;
when seasons are too short, or wet, they fail.
His threats can't countermand biology;
farm folk had none to eat, and less for sale.
Now, politicians sneer at Climate Change.
Again, they'd push the scientists aside
in favor of a policy deranged,
forgetting all the million who had died.
When governments defy reality
our world confronts "to be, or not to be".

ukase

the purge of scientists is just the start
when autocrats establish top-down rule
we take the Stalin precedent to heart
remembering Lysenko was a tool
the science can't be bent to his decree
Karl Rove can't dictate what is, and what's not
Trump's not the master of reality
once off the sound-stage, Arctic's getting hot
twelve million starved to prove Lysenko wrong
crops don't evolve to suit the boss' whim
most botanists had known it all along
but dead men never contradict Trofim
deniers who enjoy the Donald's ear
eschewing Science, put their faith in Fear