"Le Pandemonium" by John Martin A Poem on the ‘Borderless Regime,’ by Christopher Flint The Society February 7, 2021 Culture, Poetry 13 Comments . I, Satan, Now Will Have Your Dream You’ll be no longer citizens, by my decrees declared. Get used to being residents (assuming you are spared by forces of invasion massed already here and more in numbers soon to be the crush through widely opened door ignoring trampled sovereignty abandoned in repose and laying waste to liberty secured by those who chose to risk, forever, normal lives to light the beacon beam I here and now extinguish as the devil’s due I deem). Rebuilt, your new America is rich or is deprived where power reigns as absolute by fear from which derived that takes from you your dignity left speechless and forlorn where I’m the insurrection and the tyranny reborn that I have sworn will never fail as borderless regime that steals from deep within your soul what God has sown as dream. . . Christopher Flint is an American poet still alive in the twilight of a former corporate drudge and self-employed servant. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Trending now: 13 Responses C.B. Anderson February 8, 2021 Unless I am reading your poem completely wrong, I take this as an indictment of our newly “elected” Sock-Puppet-in-Chief for his alliance with the dark forces that have infiltrated and undermined what was once an exceptional great country. The reason I am unsure of the poem’s meaning is partly due to a lack of syntactic connectivity in some of the lines, for example: where power reigns as absolute by fear from which derived Better punctuation might solve some of these problems, but overall there are too many disconnected clauses and run-on sentences. Begin by attempting to write clear, concise English sentences, and only after that is done, proceed to poetic flourishes. Your heart is in the right place, but your head needs to catch up before you will be able to do what you intend to do. Even your bio provides only an unclear impression of who you are. And enough of this “minority of one” bullshit; everybody is a minority of one. Reply Christopher Flint February 14, 2021 I regret your difficulty reading my work. Though I respect your very low opinion and I accept the graphic sentiment as authentic, I don’t agree. Still, I want honest reaction, and I have no intention of removing your comment. That said, I will attempt to forward a more specific response to you through Mike Bryant regarding my concerns that do not bear directly on your specific reaction to the work itself. Those concerns have no place in critical discussion of the posted work. Regarding the work, I agree to disagree. I find your geneneralizations unfounded, but we each begin with a different premise and both arrive at predictably different conclusions. I have no difficulty with the only text that you specifically cite. The phrase “by…derived” could have been set off with commas, but I felt the breaks created by the 8 – 6 split of lines would have made commas more likely to create a problem than to solve one. The poem indicts the attempted destruction of liberty now underway by establishing a binary class structure, flooding the country with a new proletariat, and eliminating the concept of citizenship (as long lawfully overseen, rights and privileges conferred only by birth or bona fide, controlled naturalization). Standing ICE down, releasing criminals into this country who have no right to be here, and stopping construction on the wall by executive edict are giving in to — and inciting — insurrection. It will have dire consequences. Of course, from inside a barricaded Washington D.C. autonomous zone, one can’t understand that, especially if one is busy trying to forget how he stole the office he’s sitting in and trying to imagine what he’s supposed to be doing now that he’s there. Ignoring the failed “amnesty” precedent, moreover, and trying it again on a far grander scale will render our historical notion of citizenship meaningless. “Opening the door” will begin a new illegal alien influx (already on its way from what I read). Those events and the targeted refugee dumps being threatened will probably rather quickly effectively disenfranchise about half of us nationally even if our elections suddenly become honest again. Liberty is hanging by a very slender thread. Reply Aatif February 8, 2021 on this line “Rebuilt, your new America” sounded Illuminati, hehe good poem. Reply Christopher Flint February 9, 2021 Aatif — It’s just the way I thought Satan would say it. Thanks. Reply Gail Root February 8, 2021 I’m no poet. I am inclined to like everyone and give them the benefit of a doubt–frequently–to my own detriment. If being slow to take offense means I must be offended before I know someone no longer merits such consideration . . . so be it. I enjoyed it, and understood it to foretell a totalitarian government in the United States. Was I mistaken? Reply Christopher Flint February 9, 2021 Gail — I appreciate your conviction and your praise. You were not mistaken. I believe communism is now masquerading here as global humanitarianism. Pure evil is deconstructing America. Removing liberty and the dream it carries for the world is essential to that process. Dividing us into only two classes, the privileged rich and the deplorable, dependent poor, intends to dilute political opposition and break the human spirit. Those aims will be accomplished in good measure by importing massive dependent poverty with built in political willingness under the false guise of thwarting a global humanitarian struggle against looming catastrophic effects of pandemic disease, inadequate healthcare, political inhumanity, economic disadvantage, ethnic displacement, racial inequity, gender bias, and ecosystem instability. The deception will reduce “citizenship” for the deplorables to dependent geographic circumstance affording no rights whatsoever. The world used to call it slavery. Among many other sordid maneuvers, two pivotal strategies (already long afoot) are accomplishing this. Politically targeting sympathetic “refugee” resettlement and dangling the elusive reward of amnesty to encourage corporately abetted and largely ignored illegal infiltration of our borders. Those time bombs placed long ago are about to be massively detonated to immediately disenfranchise political opposition. The borders will be temporarily “opened” to lift the poverty floodgates. When the ideal elite to deplorable ratio is achieved and appropriately positioned, the magnificent charade of the global humanitarian struggle will end, and the floodgates will be lowered. Despotism will bare its armor and its armament to quell the deliberately created anarchy, restore order, and cement the allegiance of the dependent and conscripted poor. Liberty’s only hope appears to reside in the recalcitrance of individual states overcoming a dubious federal court system by gaining the adamant sympathy of those resisting this transformation. In the absence of such success, the likelihood of free and fair elections ever again seems remote, and our new, falsely minted “citizens” might well by then be able to sway such elections even if tabulation were suddenly honest again. Reply Gail Root February 9, 2021 Are you aware that Ted Cruz has been trying to get legislation passed that would strengthen the rights of states to resist federal mandates? I think he sees that it is a strategy that may ‘save’ some. Christopher Flint February 10, 2021 Gail — No, I am not aware of what Ted is up to, but the prospect of favorable federal law certainly isn’t good. I have read that hastily enacting state laws might be worth pursuing. Of course laws are only as good as the enforcement resources behind them, and mobilizing support structure is not easy in the short term. And if state laws do seem to stymie the left, they will likely be fought in court. I am aware of some state AG lawsuits in the works that are trying to make similar arguments. Those sorts of efforts still look like the only real immediate hope liberty has in the short run. If prevention doesn’t work, cure is going to be a nightmare. We are headed down a grim road. Reply Gail Root February 10, 2021 So it would seem. Reply Margaret Coats February 12, 2021 I’ve come back several times to this demonic-speaker poem, and think I comprehend it now, with a little help from your comments, Christopher. I would have said the six lines from “Rebuilt” needed clarification, but I see that the rich and the deprived in the next line are two classes in the rebuilt nation. Thus I believe “power as absolute as fear from which derived” would work to specify these classes’ leading characteristics. Then, again for my own ease in reading, I would change one more word, replacing “left” with “You’re.” That contraction would parallel “You’ll” at the beginning of the poem and, from my point of view, make Satan a bit more logical. I had considered the idea that the speech of the Father of Lies should not be perfectly logical, but that does not seem appropriate for the grim warning here. It needs to be well understood. You might have more options in a longer poem where you could further develop the character of the speaker, but this poem is too short to be Miltonic. And I give you credit for avoiding the Miltonic error of making Satan appear similar to a human hero. The elite are unlikely to be reading this, and if any of them are, they still need to fear betrayal from among their own, by which they could easily fall into the deplorable ranks. Reply Christopher Flint February 14, 2021 Your attention is thorough, your observations are thoughtful, and your suggestions are thought provoking. I appreciate your input a great deal. In the last six lines, Satan takes the demographic assault on citizenship and sovereignty that evil has incited to its plausible conclusion. The real intent of fraudulently asserting global humanitarianism is revealed. To clarify those lines: “Rebuilt, your new America is rich or is deprived…” What Satan is really setting up with his proletariat tsunami is the exclusively binary society common to totalitarian rule. All “residents” will now be EITHER privileged rich OR dependent poor. Most will be the latter. Between the massive proletariat influx and vengeful destruction of industries and employers, the middle class, that might have the courage to harbor political unrest, will virtually disappear. “…where power reigns as absolute by fear from which derived…” In rebuilt Amerca, fear creates blind obedience that power thrives on. Disarmed residents have no inherent right or privilege. Even continued existence cannot be assumed. You have suggested changing “by” here to “as,”, but Satan is not constructing a comparison. The word “as” here is a preposition and the word “absolute” is a noun. He is saying power is principle that springs from the fear of all residents. “…that takes from you your dignity left speechless and forlorn…” The fear that empowers evil takes dignity from all residents by denyng it speech and forcing it to be internalized as unavailable. The rich have limited privilege but ultimately no more dignity than the poor. Dignity is reserved to power. George III, long ago decried by detailed declaration, is back. You have suggested changing “left” here to “you’re”, which, if I understand you correctly, would seem to require a period after “dignity”. That, however would suggest that residents have been completely silenced, which is not the case. Only the assertion of dignity has been silenced and only dignity is left forlorn. I will think more about this line, but changing it would overhaul the thought itself, and I am having difficulty with that. “…where I’m the insurrection and the tyranny reborn…” Satan is pleasantly amused here by the squabbling factions he has created — each claiming the other is guilty of the insurrection and tyranny for which evil is responsible. “…that I have sworn will never fail as borderless regime…” Satan here mocks with implicit irony. Ultimately, the borders will reappear, wherever by then they are, as they must and always do in any truly sovereign state, especially those totalitarian. Access and egress will eventually be very tightly controlled as the global humanitarianism fraud is abandoned.and many successive dynasties can be safely foreseen. “…that steals from deep within your soul what God has sown as dream.” This is indeed Satan’s bottom line. The future is futility. Liberty will be dead. Individual ownership and opportunity will be distant and forbidden memories. Satan is pure evil speaking proudly to gloat, not to persuade or argue. His proofs are phenomena the reader can observe. The line breaks make his gleeful rambling adequately clear. That doesn’t make what he is masterminding rational, it just makes it factual. Reply Margaret Coats February 14, 2021 Thanks for the reading. I understand now your structure involving the two words I suggested should be changed. You are correct, of course, that any change has an effect on the direction of thought. Also appreciate your further precision regarding the character of and purpose of your speaker. Reply Christopher Flint February 14, 2021 The investment of your time in my work is a gift very precious to me. I appreciate it more than you could possibly know. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
C.B. Anderson February 8, 2021 Unless I am reading your poem completely wrong, I take this as an indictment of our newly “elected” Sock-Puppet-in-Chief for his alliance with the dark forces that have infiltrated and undermined what was once an exceptional great country. The reason I am unsure of the poem’s meaning is partly due to a lack of syntactic connectivity in some of the lines, for example: where power reigns as absolute by fear from which derived Better punctuation might solve some of these problems, but overall there are too many disconnected clauses and run-on sentences. Begin by attempting to write clear, concise English sentences, and only after that is done, proceed to poetic flourishes. Your heart is in the right place, but your head needs to catch up before you will be able to do what you intend to do. Even your bio provides only an unclear impression of who you are. And enough of this “minority of one” bullshit; everybody is a minority of one. Reply
Christopher Flint February 14, 2021 I regret your difficulty reading my work. Though I respect your very low opinion and I accept the graphic sentiment as authentic, I don’t agree. Still, I want honest reaction, and I have no intention of removing your comment. That said, I will attempt to forward a more specific response to you through Mike Bryant regarding my concerns that do not bear directly on your specific reaction to the work itself. Those concerns have no place in critical discussion of the posted work. Regarding the work, I agree to disagree. I find your geneneralizations unfounded, but we each begin with a different premise and both arrive at predictably different conclusions. I have no difficulty with the only text that you specifically cite. The phrase “by…derived” could have been set off with commas, but I felt the breaks created by the 8 – 6 split of lines would have made commas more likely to create a problem than to solve one. The poem indicts the attempted destruction of liberty now underway by establishing a binary class structure, flooding the country with a new proletariat, and eliminating the concept of citizenship (as long lawfully overseen, rights and privileges conferred only by birth or bona fide, controlled naturalization). Standing ICE down, releasing criminals into this country who have no right to be here, and stopping construction on the wall by executive edict are giving in to — and inciting — insurrection. It will have dire consequences. Of course, from inside a barricaded Washington D.C. autonomous zone, one can’t understand that, especially if one is busy trying to forget how he stole the office he’s sitting in and trying to imagine what he’s supposed to be doing now that he’s there. Ignoring the failed “amnesty” precedent, moreover, and trying it again on a far grander scale will render our historical notion of citizenship meaningless. “Opening the door” will begin a new illegal alien influx (already on its way from what I read). Those events and the targeted refugee dumps being threatened will probably rather quickly effectively disenfranchise about half of us nationally even if our elections suddenly become honest again. Liberty is hanging by a very slender thread. Reply
Aatif February 8, 2021 on this line “Rebuilt, your new America” sounded Illuminati, hehe good poem. Reply
Christopher Flint February 9, 2021 Aatif — It’s just the way I thought Satan would say it. Thanks. Reply
Gail Root February 8, 2021 I’m no poet. I am inclined to like everyone and give them the benefit of a doubt–frequently–to my own detriment. If being slow to take offense means I must be offended before I know someone no longer merits such consideration . . . so be it. I enjoyed it, and understood it to foretell a totalitarian government in the United States. Was I mistaken? Reply
Christopher Flint February 9, 2021 Gail — I appreciate your conviction and your praise. You were not mistaken. I believe communism is now masquerading here as global humanitarianism. Pure evil is deconstructing America. Removing liberty and the dream it carries for the world is essential to that process. Dividing us into only two classes, the privileged rich and the deplorable, dependent poor, intends to dilute political opposition and break the human spirit. Those aims will be accomplished in good measure by importing massive dependent poverty with built in political willingness under the false guise of thwarting a global humanitarian struggle against looming catastrophic effects of pandemic disease, inadequate healthcare, political inhumanity, economic disadvantage, ethnic displacement, racial inequity, gender bias, and ecosystem instability. The deception will reduce “citizenship” for the deplorables to dependent geographic circumstance affording no rights whatsoever. The world used to call it slavery. Among many other sordid maneuvers, two pivotal strategies (already long afoot) are accomplishing this. Politically targeting sympathetic “refugee” resettlement and dangling the elusive reward of amnesty to encourage corporately abetted and largely ignored illegal infiltration of our borders. Those time bombs placed long ago are about to be massively detonated to immediately disenfranchise political opposition. The borders will be temporarily “opened” to lift the poverty floodgates. When the ideal elite to deplorable ratio is achieved and appropriately positioned, the magnificent charade of the global humanitarian struggle will end, and the floodgates will be lowered. Despotism will bare its armor and its armament to quell the deliberately created anarchy, restore order, and cement the allegiance of the dependent and conscripted poor. Liberty’s only hope appears to reside in the recalcitrance of individual states overcoming a dubious federal court system by gaining the adamant sympathy of those resisting this transformation. In the absence of such success, the likelihood of free and fair elections ever again seems remote, and our new, falsely minted “citizens” might well by then be able to sway such elections even if tabulation were suddenly honest again. Reply
Gail Root February 9, 2021 Are you aware that Ted Cruz has been trying to get legislation passed that would strengthen the rights of states to resist federal mandates? I think he sees that it is a strategy that may ‘save’ some.
Christopher Flint February 10, 2021 Gail — No, I am not aware of what Ted is up to, but the prospect of favorable federal law certainly isn’t good. I have read that hastily enacting state laws might be worth pursuing. Of course laws are only as good as the enforcement resources behind them, and mobilizing support structure is not easy in the short term. And if state laws do seem to stymie the left, they will likely be fought in court. I am aware of some state AG lawsuits in the works that are trying to make similar arguments. Those sorts of efforts still look like the only real immediate hope liberty has in the short run. If prevention doesn’t work, cure is going to be a nightmare. We are headed down a grim road. Reply
Margaret Coats February 12, 2021 I’ve come back several times to this demonic-speaker poem, and think I comprehend it now, with a little help from your comments, Christopher. I would have said the six lines from “Rebuilt” needed clarification, but I see that the rich and the deprived in the next line are two classes in the rebuilt nation. Thus I believe “power as absolute as fear from which derived” would work to specify these classes’ leading characteristics. Then, again for my own ease in reading, I would change one more word, replacing “left” with “You’re.” That contraction would parallel “You’ll” at the beginning of the poem and, from my point of view, make Satan a bit more logical. I had considered the idea that the speech of the Father of Lies should not be perfectly logical, but that does not seem appropriate for the grim warning here. It needs to be well understood. You might have more options in a longer poem where you could further develop the character of the speaker, but this poem is too short to be Miltonic. And I give you credit for avoiding the Miltonic error of making Satan appear similar to a human hero. The elite are unlikely to be reading this, and if any of them are, they still need to fear betrayal from among their own, by which they could easily fall into the deplorable ranks. Reply
Christopher Flint February 14, 2021 Your attention is thorough, your observations are thoughtful, and your suggestions are thought provoking. I appreciate your input a great deal. In the last six lines, Satan takes the demographic assault on citizenship and sovereignty that evil has incited to its plausible conclusion. The real intent of fraudulently asserting global humanitarianism is revealed. To clarify those lines: “Rebuilt, your new America is rich or is deprived…” What Satan is really setting up with his proletariat tsunami is the exclusively binary society common to totalitarian rule. All “residents” will now be EITHER privileged rich OR dependent poor. Most will be the latter. Between the massive proletariat influx and vengeful destruction of industries and employers, the middle class, that might have the courage to harbor political unrest, will virtually disappear. “…where power reigns as absolute by fear from which derived…” In rebuilt Amerca, fear creates blind obedience that power thrives on. Disarmed residents have no inherent right or privilege. Even continued existence cannot be assumed. You have suggested changing “by” here to “as,”, but Satan is not constructing a comparison. The word “as” here is a preposition and the word “absolute” is a noun. He is saying power is principle that springs from the fear of all residents. “…that takes from you your dignity left speechless and forlorn…” The fear that empowers evil takes dignity from all residents by denyng it speech and forcing it to be internalized as unavailable. The rich have limited privilege but ultimately no more dignity than the poor. Dignity is reserved to power. George III, long ago decried by detailed declaration, is back. You have suggested changing “left” here to “you’re”, which, if I understand you correctly, would seem to require a period after “dignity”. That, however would suggest that residents have been completely silenced, which is not the case. Only the assertion of dignity has been silenced and only dignity is left forlorn. I will think more about this line, but changing it would overhaul the thought itself, and I am having difficulty with that. “…where I’m the insurrection and the tyranny reborn…” Satan is pleasantly amused here by the squabbling factions he has created — each claiming the other is guilty of the insurrection and tyranny for which evil is responsible. “…that I have sworn will never fail as borderless regime…” Satan here mocks with implicit irony. Ultimately, the borders will reappear, wherever by then they are, as they must and always do in any truly sovereign state, especially those totalitarian. Access and egress will eventually be very tightly controlled as the global humanitarianism fraud is abandoned.and many successive dynasties can be safely foreseen. “…that steals from deep within your soul what God has sown as dream.” This is indeed Satan’s bottom line. The future is futility. Liberty will be dead. Individual ownership and opportunity will be distant and forbidden memories. Satan is pure evil speaking proudly to gloat, not to persuade or argue. His proofs are phenomena the reader can observe. The line breaks make his gleeful rambling adequately clear. That doesn’t make what he is masterminding rational, it just makes it factual. Reply
Margaret Coats February 14, 2021 Thanks for the reading. I understand now your structure involving the two words I suggested should be changed. You are correct, of course, that any change has an effect on the direction of thought. Also appreciate your further precision regarding the character of and purpose of your speaker. Reply
Christopher Flint February 14, 2021 The investment of your time in my work is a gift very precious to me. I appreciate it more than you could possibly know. Reply
