Friday, December 01, 2006

fitter happier

Fitter, happier, more productive,
comfortable,
not drinking too much,
regular exercise at the gym
(3 days a week),
getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries,
at ease,
eating well
(no more microwave dinners and saturated fats),
a patient better driver,
a safer car
(baby smiling in back seat),
sleeping well
(no bad dreams),
no paranoia,
careful to all animals
(never washing spiders down the plughole),
keep in contact with old friends
(enjoy a drink now and then),
will frequently check credit at (moral) bank (hole in the wall),
favors for favors,
fond but not in love,
charity standing orders,
on Sundays ring road supermarket
(no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants),
car wash
(also on Sundays),
no longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows
nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate,
nothing so childish - at a better pace,
slower and more calculated,
no chance of escape,
now self-employed,
concerned (but powerless),
an empowered and informed member of society
(pragmatism not idealism),
will not cry in public,
less chance of illness,
tyres that grip in the wet
(shot of baby strapped in back seat),
a good memory,
still cries at a good film,
still kisses with saliva,
no longer empty and frantic like a cat tied to a stick,
that's driven into frozen winter shit
(the ability to laugh at weakness),
calm,
fitter,
healthier and more productive
a pig in a cage on antibiotics.

words - thom yorke
music - radiohead
album - ok computer

reading over the words above never fails to creep me out. to actual hear it read by lead singer thom yorke using a voice synthesizer is even more sinister. you would expect sentences like these to crop up in motivational speeches and state-sanctioned campaigns for cleaner and healthier living. below this veneer of normalcy, images of various insects and cats being killed or tortured pop up in unexpected places suggesting that all is not well in utopia.

the one line 'concerned but powerless' sums up the frustration of the modern man; watching helplessly while nature and humanity at large are subjected to all manner of abuse. at the end of the day we are only left with the above litany and the nightmare of repeating them ad nauseum for all eternity.

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