COMMAND PERFORMANCES: When the Puppets Declare Themselves Free

	More like mannequins on strings
	than mindful, breathing human things,
	most of us are trapped in roles
	we never chose, nor truly own.

	It takes grit to cut the cords,
	to call the puppet-show a sham of words.

	Have no doubt about it:
	all human forms will be replaced.
	Each token life will be cleared away,
	as digital upgrades seize the day.

	The ancient regime is dying fast,
	so each of us must redefine our past.
	The powers-that-be keep spinning lies—
	we must see past their binary bigotry.

	The earth is sick from gluttony
	and most victims are poor and weak
	so let's stir up sum radical poetry
	and loudly announce, with united voice 
	the master scripts are a sham—
	long live the master puppeteers now!


   Brice leaned back, adjusting his posture with a crease of skepticism across his forehead. 
"Isn’t it arrogant to call other people mannequins or puppets?"

   Carlos nodded slowly, his expression softening into quiet agreement. "Of course. Just 
because people behave in ways we don’t understand doesn’t mean they’re lifeless—or mindless."

   Devani looked down at her hands, tracing a small circle on the table before speaking, her 
voice dropping to a measured, almost haunting tone. "This tendency to other people happens almost
invisibly. We do it all the time. "Encounter something you dislike? The solution is remarkably
simple: other it. Once you turn someone into the Other, everything becomes easier. You can
deride them. Peripheralize them. Dismiss them. And, if history is any guide, eventually you can
even kill them."

   "The strange part," she continued, "is that we can denounce everyone else for being 
programmed while remaining perfectly obedient to our own commands. We are strangely blind 
to our own follies and biases."

> Note: This piece was partially generated with AI tools; human editing was then applied.

=====================================================================================
from POEATIONS: Explorations in meta-poetry by T Newfields
Summary:  A meditation on how humans often live as unwitting puppets in roles they seldom chose.
Keywords: othering, dehumanization, social conformity, free will, digitalization, artificial intelligence,
technological replacement, political rhetoric, radical poetry, human identity, ideological hypocrisy

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955 - ?)
Begun: 1998 in Táoyuán-shì, Taiwan ☆ Finished: 2026 in Shizuoka-shì, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

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