I have two chimps within, Laziness and Hyperactivity. They smoke cigs, drink yerba, fling shit at each other, and devour the face of anyone who gets close to either.
They also devour my dreams.
It’s just that “I was finally free from the current wave of oppression, and ready for the next one” would be a shitty closing verse.
But yes, you’re right. I think oppression is like weeds in a garden: if you’re diligent, the fight against it becomes easier over time, as you’re preventing the oppression/weeds from creating more of itself. But once you stop fighting, it sprouts out of nowhere, ready to reproduce and take your society/garden over again.
First they came for the billionaires
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a psychopathic money hoarder
Then they came for the fascists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a face to be punched
Then they came for the government
And I did not speak out
Because I was not an instrument of oppression
Then they came for capitalism
And I did not speak out
Because I was not part of the system
Then they came for me
No, wait, nobody came for me
I was finally free.
I know the last two lines are naïve; and yes, the fate of the two former heads of the NKVD is a good example. Or even the whole USSR after Lenin. (If not for an ice pick, that would be known as “Bonapartism with Russian characteristics”.)
Still trying to find a good replacement. The original poem conveys “fight for groups you don’t belong to, because their enemies will also go after you”; I want the subversion to be something like “don’t fight for your enemies”, or perhaps “don’t fight against people fighting for you”.
I’m considering
Pinging @msage@programming.dev for ideas.