Ph: Politics: Turtles All The Way Down Poem by Brian Johnston

(A short lesson in Republican science!)

Seems once in a while even dumb folks are right
Even broken clock's right twice a day friend,
Bets off if clock's digital, LED's can't pretend
And with features so plentiful, truth can be blight!

Modernity tells you life's multiple choice,
But the answers can sometimes be tricky,
And scientists too may not always agree,
So that most hallowed halls echo more than one
voice.

But world's true believers hate truth that's a clown
So a particle/wave must be nonsense,
Their ancestor worship avoids all pretense,
'The world rests on a turtle (repeating on down!) '


Brian Johnston
July 5,2017

Poet's Notes:
My good friend Bri Edwards suggests that this poem is in dire need of explanation, so though I think the fault may well be Bri's expectation that all poetry be for 6th graders or below, I will honor his request. Ha!

The first stanza is largely a joke that laughs about the fact that even a broken clock gets to be right twice a day if it is analog, i.e., mechanical. Since the only thing Trump has been right about in 6 months is that we have a lot of angry people in this country, I guess it would be OK to stop and say, 'Congratulations Donald! You got something right at least! ' Ha! The flip side of this metaphor is that with digital clocks which are designed to be easily read even in the dark, their menus can be so complicated with all the extra features built in that it takes a genius to set the time initially? I think that this is a consequence of modernity myself! : -)

The 2nd stanza continues this line of thought laughing at the idea that any aspect of life is that simple. The height of stupidity being, leagues that give every child a trophy, because just turning out proves they are winners. Gag me with a long handled spoon! When issues are complex however it can take time for those dealing with it to understand what the questions mean, let alone the answers! I am sorry if simpler folk are sometimes overwhelmed, but even geniuses have this problem at times. How stupid is one really though if you declare your wet dreams are superior to another man's intellect? Modern life is about the division of labor though, and we must learn to discern who among us is trustworthy.

Stanza 3 makes fun of any true believer who thinks that he understands anything. The only possible way to love God is to doubt his existence at times. If you have no questions, you have no faith, and even the most ignorant of Christians believe that it is your faith that saves you. The Bible is full of paradox; science creates models of reality that few men can grasp fully and yet these models are valuable and can make predictions (which though they may not always be perfectly right, we would be insane to ignore.) How can a particle have a mass and yet behave like a wave? It is a paradox, and it is true! In ancient cultures (Indian and Chinese) it was believed that the world rested on the back of a giant 'Cosmic Turtle.' No one dared to ask the question, 'What does the Cosmic Turtle' stand on. The modern Republican has an answer though, 'It is Turtles all the way down! ' They are too stupid or cowardly to follow any line of logic to its end. 'How far down do we go Donald? '