Birthright

I deserve
You deserve
We deserve
We deserve better than this
 
I’m not inspired to fight for the freedom
To be a parasite
To say anything, consequence-free
To live in denial, delusion and distraction
To worship the “free market” and its occupying armies
To destroy the very planet we share
To commodify everyone and everything we love
To hate everything we are
 
“Freedom to” can become “freedom over”
When it flows from a society divided
 
I’ve earned
You’ve earned
Everything I have, someone else earned
Everything I earned, someone else has
 
In my phone is a lithium-ion battery
The battery has a cathode
The cathode contains cobalt, from copper
The copper comes from mines in the DRC
And is made into cobalt in refineries in China
Then you’ll need lithium, from Chile or Australia, and aluminum
Just to begin to assemble a cathode
One part of one part of one thing that I own
 
Picture production:
Each person. Each process.  
The sheer distance covered.
The velocity, the viscosity
The WORK.
 
No matter what I did to get that phone
I didn't fucking earn it!
 
My rights
Your rights
Whither humanity?  
Will we repolarize in time?
 
Our greatest efforts, turned transactional:
Traded, canceled, or absorbed
Our bodies, played with and discarded:  
Cheap green plastic army men
 
The freedom worth the fight is freedom
From this massive network of enforced exploitation
From homicidal maniacs protecting profit and property
From exciting, well-funded non-solutions to heartbreaking, solvable problems
From our own personalities, curated to be tolerable to twisted taste buds
From a culture so starving it sexualizes slavery
From so-called educations that dim the lights further
From the blinders: cynicism for some, faith for others
 
They say "freedom from" is impossible --
It’s not just possible
It's our birthright.