ADD in HD

something I think you’re all forgetting
– privacy doesn’t have settings

I feel like we are slipping into a world of ADD in HD
because we think it is progress to go from vinyl to CD
to mp3 to streaming scenes on these little shiny screens
– we like to flatter ourselves
these are personal pleasure machines.

we can push a button and satisfy our desires
and it is always easier to accept than to inquire
so we are quick to bless these things as progress
and keep slipping because we don’t see one part
in three of the history of AT&T
see, back in nineteen-thirteen
separate but equal was legal
and women were not still not legally people
they still could not legally vote
they could be legally raped and choked
and the trees from coast to coast
fruited people with purple throats
so you know it was only white men that spoke
when the Justice Department declared
AT&T to be a “natural monopoly”
the genesis of the information economy
was a protected and directed monopoly
from a time when crime was violating a sign
saying that, over there, is the colored line

AT&T owned all the telephone patents
plus the poles and copper wire on the backend
and Western Union’s telegram biz besides,
because AT&T’s reach was a continent wide
said the feds, “shed the Western telegram side
and you’ll be a monopoly that need not hide”

this went on for seven decades – seventy years –
long enough for those clever AT&T engineers
to give the world a whole new kind of fear
their collabs in Ma Bell’s research labs produced
the foundation of the communication devices
– the pleasure machines – that we all like to use

they designed transistors, and integrated circuits
and we’re like “that’s progress” – but is it worth it?
they figured out how to make phones wireless
but who’s to say we the people really desired this?

at the time, we were still officially a nation
busy building up redlining and segregation
so let me give it to you blunt, even if it hurts
a few racist poindexters designed cell networks
they spent two generations putting them together
you really think they did it so we could talk better?

people spent decades marching for human rights
while the feds paid for cell networks and satellites
they designed and built the Internet to track
your every move and thought in bits and bytes
we’re dogs that don’t know we’re wearing a leash
until someone at the other end pulls it tight

this has been true since the time of the colored signs
the feds went to Western Union and shook hands
so they could get copies of every single telegram
and what I want you to understand
is that absolutely nothing has changed
power is still enforcing your will
by giving out dough and dishing out pain
time and technology have simply allowed
the shooters out there to take sharper aim

while Western was letting them read our texts
the feds were playing games with life and death

the Bureau of Investigation
conducted counterintelligence operations
– spying, sabotage, and neutralization
up to and including assassination –
and they always got their information
from the AT&T Corporation
by listening to our conversations

the obvious implication of this favored corporation
selling cellphones to civilians all across the nation:
they want your location to ensure your cooperation

it does not matter if you really believe
all that matters is you bend your knees
if you continue to pay and do what they say
and otherwise stay out of their way
you are a loyal follower, who every month
turns over some of your hard earned dollars

after all, it’s always easier to accept than to inquire
and we can push a button to satisfy our desires
so this must be progress
we like what we get
and we choose to forget
what we gave in exchange
that the only safe space we really have left
is locked inside our brains