I have been reading through a series of works by Yuval Noah Harai that seems topical and a historian’s blend of philosophy and history projecting into humanity’s future.  It’s been challenging and is spawning a few poems that are often in rebuttal of what I’m reading.   I do believe, however, that there appears to be some worth to be gained by nearly all in having at least a passing familiarity with the topics he touches on.

Article 19 (The Burden of Secularism)
by Michael Romani

Not to be too stark in my pessimism
Wishing I could only speak with optimism
But the ideals of mass secularization
Sometimes strikes at liberty with particularism

The secularists pretend commitment to the truth
But over and again since the day of my youth
I have been witness to dogmatic hypocrisy
When confronted with the failures of their legacy

Some who believe in this secular sort of fashion
Believe they are and have the truest means of compassion
Never understanding that they value stems from God's law
And secularism is but a faint echo deep within the Fall

Too often eagerly embracing their flawed Marxism
Which has proven itself fraudulent in its catechism
Bringing to our world a hurt full of abject misery
Than we have ever before seen in our human history

Staking a claim for the just cause of needed equality
The reality is too often just the rise of another hierarchy
Claiming itself the path toward greater freedom
Each technocracy has proven more oppressive then kingdoms

Teaching our children that they are more earth's citizens
The has come to reduce us all to sordid global denizens
By pretending free thinking conquers all the unknown
They have instead lifted an elite from humanity's shadow

Lacking ethical commitment and but falsified responsibility
Society has lost its moral compass and its capability
Catchy slogans and inspirationally false battle cries
Does not replace real truth from top down sorts of lies

There is an insistence on decrying the ignorance of masses
As the beloved leaders burn our world into yesterday's ashes
Replacing mercy with the wanton extermination of millions
These prophets of Marxism have come to enslave billions

Acknowledging the shadow and weight of industrialization
The ways of truth have given away to progressive modernization
Freedom has given way to the dictatorship of the majority
And with this come successive losses in our strained morality

Secularism has bled its cold shower of dogmatic abuse
With its dissenters sentenced to the gulags ill put to use
While finding fragments of faith in our shared humanity
Truth seeking has been laid to frozen waste out of vanity

Prophets of the godless continue to drag down our humanity
Pretending to be self righteous while tearing at our dignity
Declaring that everyone has a right to opinion's self expression
Because after all, they wouldn't want to leave a bad impression

There remains that every creed must bear its own shadow
Mistakes and blindspots that lead down the wrong road
Time has shown the value of knowing our inclined ignorance
And in these constraints, the need to find our tolerance

(c)  March 15, 2019   Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved