3rd May – World Press Freedom Day – Defend Julian Assange…

“You think you know it all!” you said –
a common accusation –
but there’s plenty that you can find out
with a little application.

You think you know the truth as well,
like many of our nation,
as though it came all by itself
without investigation.

It isn’t hard or mystical –
the facts are all around us –
yet blindness has been so ingrained
they leave us as they found us.

Our ruling class is subtle, they
don’t look for books to burn.
If there are no secrets then
there’s nowt for you to learn.

The lies are everywhere instead –
we’re deafened by their din –
they’re wrapped so tight about us
so that nothing else gets in.

It starts as soon as we are born
and carries on in school.
They let you think you’re cynical,
that’s not so hard to fool.

It’s a question of assumptions –
your eyes fixed on the screen,
then any practised conjurer
determines what is seen.

To find what really happens, you
must take the trick apart
and realise that magic is
another kind of art.

This may sound too simplistic,
theoretical as well –
but to provide you with the details
would take too long to tell.

You think you know the history,
so did you ever look,
read a rebel pamphlet or
check out a lefty book?

You’ll find there’s other stories that
the newspapers ignore
and ways of understanding these
that you weren’t taught before.

You don’t have to believe them,
you don’t have to be drafted,
but it might just come in useful when
you feel you’re being shafted.

rs 17.12.98