When anecdotal evidence replace
a minimum pretence of sense;
when antidotes for being led astray
into a gut reaction of revenge
are censored, hijacked by the
industry of making news.com real.
You never realize you’ve been enslaved
by inky bread and circuses to join
plebeian choirs, and shouting:
Kill. Kill. Kill.
Cause just as Joseph Stalin said:
a single death is tragical,
a million deaths are just statistics.
(but still the devil lurks in details)
That’s why you’ve joined the choirs.
That’s why complexity and logic reasoning
are hidden by the simple stories.
that just affect your vengeful heart,
and with plebeian choirs are shouting:
Kill. Kill. Kill.
You’re blinded by proximity,
and shed your tears for random news.
We fall together in a pit of lies,
created by the careful choice of truths.
Cause logic and statics — facts
are chanceless gainst a single case.
So take an antidote gainst anecdotes,
and dive into the spreadsheet world
and shed your tears for the statistics.
And never join plebeian choirs, shouting:
Kill. Kill. Kill.
Today Mary wants us to write poetry about News at dVerse poetics. I have recently been thinking a lot about how we can be manipulated by stories engaging our passions — demanding political actions and simple solutions. One of the best antidotes are the talks by Hans Rosling:
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October 21, 2014
Björn Rudbergs writings 
Your explanation is as true as your thoughtful poetry. “how we can be manipulated by stories engaging our passions…” I always learn something about poetry and writing when I read your words, Björn.
As poets and writers we both being manipulated and have the ability to manipulate.. frightening really.
Bjorn, It seems to be a type of mob rule. That’s what got the followers of Hitler in trouble in WWII. We have to think for ourselves. — Susan
It’s not easy if we do not check the facts… There are so many mistakes among journalists and others.
ugh. hopefully i never join that choir…smiles….but you speak truth on the machine that makes the news and what we are spoon fed to believe ….propaganda and entertainment, that seems to be what the news is these days…
as soon as we enter the human angle we are likely to end up with a clouded vision.
Bjorn, I just watched the video you shared of Hans Rosling. (And I hope others will take the time to watch it.) It makes a lot of sense, and your poem speaks even louder to me after having watched it. I do think we are often led astray by the news media, as your poem indicated. And thinking of the video, I would compare the incident Rosling mentioned about the shark biting a Swede to what is happening here in the US with 3 people having contracted Ebola (one died) and the suddenly rampant fear and sensationalism of the problem everywhere. Sensationalism gets people to watch the news, and we must be aware of that & never join those plebian choirs.
I think sensationalism and short time news fills everything.. currently the news here are filled with a possible foreign submarine.. all ebola and IS things are gone from the news…
Hi Bjorn…yes, I saw that about the submarine on Facebook. Really interesting how news changes. I am curious about that submarine though. Here right now, it seems ebola trumps ISIS, but ‘ebola’ news seems to be dying down now that many people who had contact with the ‘infected’ have been cleared. We are having state & local elections soon, so that also is the BIG story; but undoubtedly ISIS will return to the forefront soon.
corporate media rules the world..they know how to enslave with ‘inky bread’ and feed us with what we like to be fed with…a vicious cycle this is…a very thoughtful poem and it’s really incredible how you’ve used Stalin’s analogy…
Despite what we might like or dislike.. Stalin was a smart man.
Thanks for sharing this very interesting video, Björn. The media select the fact they share or leave out and sometimes it is good to check what the real facts are – providing we have the time.
“So take an antidote gainst anecdotes,
and dive into the spreadsheet world
and shed your tears for the statistics.’ – my favorite lines. We need to remember that statistics are people!
Every dot in the statistics represent a human being.. but we need to combine them.. there will always be sad things happen.. but the small stories might easily cloud our judgement .. after all the world is 7 billion stories …
That Stalin quote really gets me…and yet it is so true: we hear about things like the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leon, and think, “how sad”, but don’t really get too emotional about it until it’s someone on our own continent…despite the fact that a life is a life, whether close to home, or half a globe away.
I think we need the stories to connect to our hearts… but they should only explain what happened.. a while ago we had a report about a young woman that they had photographed from the point she was infected until she was dead… and yes it was very touching, just as the cases that had been sick and survived.
It’s very very close with the submarines…
I think it was Hitler in MEIN KAMPF who wrote, “If you tell a lie long enough it becomes the truth.” Your poem (love the free verse version, words with the nets down) is bang on, topical, prophetic, darkly humorous. Like the line /we fall together into a pit of lies/ Yeah, I, too hope I do not ever join the choir, but now that I am older, & labeled as a poetic muckraker, I doubt that will happen.
It used to be that poets gave the personal stories and journalists gave facts and figures… alas I think poets have to provide the big pictures when journalism has switched to stories..
I like that repetition effect of your piece,
“We fall together in a pit of lies,
created by the careful choice of truths.” – very powerful lines you have in here…..
Alas the careful selection of little stories can create a big lie…
I enjoyed reading your write! Yes, it could all be condensed to; Kill, Kill, Kill! Thanks.
did like the inky bread… pit of lies… and I think my light piece on geese may be concerned about being killed, killed, killed… a lot of emotion in this, must read again
The media manipulates the masses….
I specially like this part Bjorn:
We fall together in a pit of lies,
created by the careful choice of truths.
That’s a good twist to the refrain of Kill, Kill and Kill ~ And thanks for link as well ~ Very informative speech, I am listening ~
This poem really resonates with the mood that today´s dVerse prompt put me into. The connection between Stalin´s quote and your verse “shed your tears for the statistics” really works for me.
The first true inkling i got of this human herd of reality.. was with the Iraq war cry after 9/11.. so obvious to me.. an opportunity for a ploy.. as Bush could not lie straight faced to me.. and i could see right through his swagger of eyes.. the lies of ‘other’ motivations…
I suppose.. now.. it is good.. that i am not accepted into the herd mentality through my younger life.. as i guess i missed the programming of the ‘heard’ with eyes and ears.. to see the truth.. when lies override our instinct of what is truth.. or lie.. before our eye…:)
I know what you mean about those choirs of kill, kill, kill. The news creates and thrives on fear, then we make judgments based on half truths. The video was quite enlightening as far as reducing preconceived notions. Funny too, about the chimps. But what I liked best was that it gave a more positive view of the world.
Thanks for the poem and the video Bjorn. Enjoyed them both.
As someone who went into journalism when the average age of a sub-editor was 55 and left when it was 25, it is very clear that the question today is not, ‘Is it news?’ but ‘Will it sell?’
second every word there….news has become about TRPs
Very true & a fitting rebuke, Bjorn. We must break free. Poetry helps to dive below the surface.
This is powerful, Bjorn. The reference to the “industry of making news.com real” is so painfully true. This is a call to use logic and reasoning instead of hyped-up gut reactions. Fantastic.
Unfortunately your poem is all too real – and yet we are drawn to the news like lemmings. I have not read an english language newspaper since moving to Mexico, the Internet however is addictive, a daily fix that repeats itself, a groundhog daily echoing of kill, kill, kill.
i agree with you here Bjorn..I don’t want to join that Choir..smiles..
Groovy piece. Love- “You never realize you’ve been enslaved / by inky bread and circuses to join / plebeian choirs, and shouting: / Kill. Kill. Kill.”
A lot of wise words here, Bjorn. Just like your submarines and our ebola, sensational news dominates, then is replaced. I haven’t read anything about your subs for a couple of days–hope things have settled, or will settle, down soon.
Very powerful Bjorn, we hear too much in recent times of the kill, kill, rant from the idealistic young men in the middle east. One wonders where they think it will all end.
I am most struck by your lines “created by the careful choice of truths”, and “shed your tears for the statistics”. You are so right, Bjorn – we hear only carefully selected portions of what’s really going on.
Spot on! This is brilliant Bjorn. News has become anecdoes, over-simplified stories and sound bites…appealing to the lowest common denominator in all of us.
Much of the “so-called” news stories that are presented to we plebeians are selected to further the agendas of the powerful and mollify the western population into believing that everything that can be done is being done for them. Historically, everywhere in the world, “The News” has often been used as a propaganda tool – and, thus “the news” must always be questioned. I enjoyed the video and I agree: the media often does not know “the news”.
Very effective use of epistrophe repetition in this.
This. Is. Amazing! LOVE this for so many reasons, the kicking of ass poetry being first. Wow.