Us and Them!
Us vs Them!
Us and Them!
Us vs Them!

Us-Them Us-Them Us-Them! Us-Them Us-Them Us-Them!

Us Good, Them Bad!
Us Good vs Them Bad!
Us Good, Them Bad!
Us Good vs Them Bad!

Till one day

Us-Them Us-Them Us-Them!
Us-them-Us-Us!? Us-them-Us? Us-Us! ...

Just Us? Just Us! Just Us!!!

I've seen it from the other side! I've worked it out!

Maybe it was that knock on the head or that brush with the law,
Or seeing those kids painted as terrorists when really they were just very poor,
Throwing stones at soldiers in their town,
Who killed their older brothers and blew holes in their school,

Or seeing how trees branch from one trunk,
All languages, all people, all life on our planet from one source,
One egg

I'm a victim of manipulated groupthink,
Used by powerful self-serving faceless forces in my own country,

Elitists, indoctrinating me from birth


A stew, loaded and seasoned from early primary,
Kept simmering on lowest heat, mostly lidded, throughout secondary,

During later secondary and studies after, for those who go, the stew's lid often pops off and its contents tasted and questioned,

Sometimes the seasoning is found dull and changed,
Even whole chunks can be pulled up from the depths, considered and replaced with fresh,

But it's rare that the whole concoption is emptied and re-made from scratch,

Arts and history and philosophy,
And don't get me started on Media Studies,
So much carefully made stew thrown away,

But the pressures of money, mean that fewer and fewer choose to go on to learn anything of stew-making,

One way and another, most of those who in their wild days altered the seasoning, switched some of the contents,
And even threw their bowls at the wall,

Come back prodigally to be refilled again with the same essential mix


Free from education, the story of our greatness is picked up by News that seamlessly carries us on

We think we're free-thinkers,
Choosing a red-top or a clever paper,

But we're eating different-shaped printed or broadcast fishfood,
And it all tastes of stew under the top layer

Getting us to love and take pride in Good Us Over Here,
And to fear and look down on Evil Them Over There

We're automatically hoodwinked into supporting and believing in the truth of  

Our    Great    Way,

Everything

Our flag is better than theirs,
Our history,
Our food,
Our language,
Our beer, obviously,
Our politics isn't perfect by any means,
But it's better than Theirs,

So I don't rock the boat,
I hate and fear and cry and laugh as directed,
And I certainly will not vote for anyone who I'm told is like Them

So hoodwinked,
That despite the non-stop lying and corruption,
Despite the huge gap between richest and homeless,
The hideous amount of bombs we drop on people,
Or sell to others to drop on people for billions of pounds for the already filthy rich bomb-makers,

Not an ounce of 'morality' in any of it,
The opposite

Despite that and more, we still carry this fuzzy reassuring stewy feeling that tells us:
"It's ok, because we're basically Very Good here.
There are just a few mistakes and a few small issues".

The lying conning bastards.

In fact, there is only Us.

Though I see too now that some of Us aren't satisfied with being 'just one of Us',
Instead want to be in control over Us,
Look down on Us,
Own far more things than the rest of Us,
While also being loved by Us.

They're still Us,
There is only Us,

Even the nazis and apartheid supremacists are Us,
Us with very twisted delusions of greatness,

Still Us, but perverse elitist bigots, propagandising, stealing,  self-enriching, while others starve, they are the closest anyone can get to being Them,

But still Us.

The same in every country.