Systematic Oppression is a "thing"

Our little systems have their day;

They have their day and cease to be:

They are but broken lights of Thee,

And Thou, O Lord, are more than they.

          Alfred, Lord Tennyson

____________________________

 

They seem so powerful.

They believe in their own power.

They hug power to themselves.

They use it and abuse it.

 

Who?

Almost any person every who has been placed in a position of influence

It seems perhaps to be the great human sin.

 

The abuse of power.

The use of power on others instead of for others.

The use of power to clamber to the top of the fetid hierarchy of the world

Rather than the use of power to lift others up.

 

From Adam and Eve’s desire to “be like God”

To Cain’s painful and murderous desire that God love him best

To the arrogance of the people of Babel

 

On and on it goes.

A world in which the systems oppress rather than enable

Harm rather than heal

Promote injustice and inequity rather than justice and equity

 

And if the systems are not powerful and oppressive enough

Those in power work to make them more powerful and oppressive

 

And so we have voter suppression

And systematic racism (yes it does exist)

And the minimization of women

And the marginalization of people who happen to be LGBTQI

 

And so the rich get richer and the poor poorer

And wealth and power flow in every increase amounts into

The hands of a few.

 

It is, it would seem, a recipe for disaster.

 

We have seen it all before.

Those lusting for power.

Abusing power.

Unleashing the forces of evil on the world

 

We have seen the violence, the destruction, the death

That ensues

 

And yet

They have their day and cease to be

Those people who had it all

All the power, and are now mere footnotes in history

We know their names

We also know how their “kingdoms” crumbled and fell

As all kingdoms based on power and wealth eventually crumble and fall

 

The fact is that Love (God) is greater

then all our little systems

(bless our little hearts)

 

Love does win, eventually

Resurrection does follow death

A rising does follow the fall

 

But there is pain

And there is dying, and sacrifice

Along the way!

 

This at times is all we remember

And this is what we fear

This is why we cling to our systems so tightly

 

But always, even as the world unravels around us

And our system come crashing down

There is Love

 

This day I watch the unraveling of our world

I watch as justice is perverted

I watch the earth suffer and slowly die

I watch people filled with hate plot and plan

I watch as ignorance wins

And truth is abandoned

 

And I am tempted to despair

 

But

 

Our little systems have their day;

They have their day and cease to be:

They are but broken lights of Thee,

And Thou, O Love, are more than they.