Philosophical Poems as ‘Caricatures of Thought’
by Chengde Chen
It has been the same road under different feet
The footsteps of the hundred year women's movement
is merely an aesthetic change from the Chinese to the Western -
turning a compelled two dimensional restriction
into a freely chosen three dimensional bending
The social status is raised for a shoe-heel
while the price is walking on tiptoes for life
Oh, the ever-suffering feet, no matter how innocent you are
the definition of 'feminine beauty' is to deform you
Because this is the base enabling men to stand firmly
it is like worshipping
Longing is the temple
Kissing is Heaven and Earth
When I am worshipping
it is like being in love
Praying is sweet whispering
Enlightening is the climax of the soul
Being in love is deifying the object
beautifying, privileging, and immortalising
Man and deity attract as opposite sexes
Life is ruthless medium for both
Love needs longing
just as a deity must be distant
Marriage deletes the space
just as there is no religion in Heaven
A deity is an eternal lover
A lover is a temporary deity
So, some who have failed in love
turn to religion, which is nearby
Love plants seeds
The deity becomes seeds himself
The soul is conceived
What follows nine-months pregnancy is faith
If we agree on two seemingly reasonable assumptions
we can prove the morality of doctors is lower than that of prostitutes
The first assumption is:
in a fully commercialised society everything is a commodity
so all professions are businesses for making money
The second assumption is:
making money from agony and from pleasure are different -
the higher the degree of compulsion, the lower the morality
Then, it follows that a doctors morality is lower than a prostitute's
Because when a doctor says "no money, no treatment"
he is blackmailing a person in crisis
While when a prostitute says "no money, no sex"
she is merely trading goods for goods
So, a man in a white coat is not necessarily an angel
and a tall hospital can be lower than a brothel
Is this strange?
But this is the new ethics of a fully commercialised society
is civilisation's sincere appreciation for barbarity
Hit him! Hit him! Hit him again!
Let the skull be smashed by the heaviest blow
so that the plasma bursts out at body temperature
If the ancient fight between gladiators and lions
had some solemn heroism of competing against nature
then men destroying each other in modern boxing
is only a business of turning blood reeking into profit
But the spectators then and now belong to the same civilisation
- enjoying others expressing your own brutish nature!
Roars delivered by language are still roars
Barbarity transmitted by television is still barbarity
Cruelty with regulations is still cruelty
except that it can be more cruel!
When a sport is destroying
the competition is war
All those condemnations of violence and sympathy for the injured
including the noble talk of the Red Cross and RSPCA
are merely putting on an act
The seething excitement over the boxing ring has declared loudly:
civilisation is a false appearance, as we are still what we were!
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