The Same Old Story Poem by Mary Champion

THE SAME OLD STORY
16/2/2025

For 1200 years the Catholic Church
had a stranglehold over Christendom.
It held the key to all the mysteries.
It communicated in its own tongue,
unintelligible to the masses.
From the humblest, beggar, poorest peasant
to the mightiest emperors and kings,
the church dictated all morality,
controlled the only paths to salvation.
And, because belief in God and Satan
was almost universal in that time,
almost all feared for their immortal soul.
Even the great and dubiously good
stopped short of offending His Holiness.
Unfettered papal corruption took hold.
It was no longer good enough to be good,
one's ticket to Heaven came at a price.
Desperate, ignorant fools paid dearly,
purchasing their papal indulgences,
adding to its already obscene wealth.
Then Luther nailed his theses to the door,
cracks undermined papal authority,
men dared to think for themselves, to question
the need for popes, and even for priesthoods.

Slowly, over subsequent centuries,
people began to lose their crippling fear.
Shedding the doctrines that shackled their minds,
millions turned their backs on superstition.
Some dared to think that they were free at last.
They erred - a new despot was gestating.

Now the Tech Bros of Silicon Valley
have us in their malevolent power.
All our transactions, private and public
must pass through their designated channels.
They control every aspect of our lives
with their incomprehensible jargon
and impenetrable algorithms.
Desperate to buy in to the zeitgeist,
we must hand them our personal data,
and a good portion of our hard-earned cash
for the right to function in their fiefdom.
And so the Tech Bros grow ever stronger,
looking to take over our governments.
Soon they will own and control everything.
Their reach is wider than Rome could have dreamed
as they leach humanity from our lives.

Where, in God's name, is the Luther for our age?