Baron Wormser: If

If, as a poet suggested a long while ago, the center is not holding. If morality no longer has any practicable basis. If public statements are cant and platitude. If the society does not know up from down so that any statement can be taken seriously. If the visions that American fiction has been offering since Melville and Hawthorne are dismissed as “literary.” If money is taken as the sine qua non of any purposeful existence. If images are paraded endlessly as having some substance beyond being images, even though everyone knows they are images. If hypocrisy no longer exists. If the pursuit of happiness entitles me to do whatever I want to do in the name of my happiness. If truth can be dismissed as “relative” and “judgmental” and “socially determined” because no standard exists. If there is no human nature because, again, everything is “socially determined.” If the humorless can banish humor. If every artistic pursuit is a career. If loneliness can be abolished via technology. If each person can be the center of an exciting personal movie that can be held in one’s palm. If celebrities and executives are paid salaries that exponentially dwarf what teachers and nurses and firefighters are paid. If holidays are meaningless because commerce never ceases. If a person finds self-justification in being busy. If religion is nothing more than personal salvation. If lies do not need excuses but are held as currency in their own right. If fear and loathing exist in code words that bring knowing smirks and nods. If euphemism believes it is language. If there are so many lights, birds do not not know how to fly at night. If airplanes crisscross the planet non-stop every day and never give the planet time to breathe. If extinction of species becomes a given. If higher education means debt. If new and improved means pointless. If progress means historical amnesia. If every endeavor can be monetized. If people use little electric pictures rather than words to communicate feelings. If importance is given to making vast amounts of money (see “billionaires”) without asking how that money was made and what the point is of having vast amounts of money beyond the ability to make more money. If elections are the captive of vast amounts of money. If life has two modes: work and entertainment. If grievance is a self-righteous pleasure. If food is a product. If machines define human beings, as in “functional” and “dysfunctional.” If every behavior is a pathology. If wastefulness is a way of life that is assumed to have no consequences. If profit is the constant motive. If people are not the brothers and sisters of all creatures on Earth. If alienation from the Earth is taken as normal. If a sterile lawn is considered nature. If moral terms no longer exist so that there is no vanity or greed. If atomic weapons are ready for action and are continually being “improved.” If economy means consuming and then consuming more. If wanting replaces needing. If civility is for “losers.” If meaningless shibboleths are taken to have meaning. If thuggery is applauded. If culture can be dismissed as a frill. If mockery and vituperation are considered news worthy. If news replaces thought. If suffering is dismissed as irrelevant. If conservatives have no interest in conserving. If self-interest poses as virtue. If ignorance is considered amusing. If children are illegal. If invasion is defense. If hope becomes a fetish. If comfort and convenience are considered values. If everything is for sale. If animosity is considered business as usual. If smoke is weather. If politics is cultism. If honesty is for suckers. If self swallows soul. If jargon supersedes intellect. If genocide creates beach resorts.

   Then Donald Trump can be President. 

Copyright 2025 Baron Wormser

Baron Wormser‘s many books include The History Hotel, a collection of poems published by Cavan Kerry. He currently resides in Montpelier, Vermont, with his wife.