MUTANT AMERICA: Some Metaphors for Turtle Island

IMAGE: Part of a skull surrounded by flames and a woman attempting to leave a complex trans-dimensional machine.

SETTING: The air in a second-rate bar/art gallery near a rundown district of a crumbling city 
in a small town in the USA was thick with the stench of stale beer and old regrets. 
A salvaged holographic projector spun lazily above a dented metal table, casting a haunting 
image of a skull wreathed in flickering digital flames. The atmosphere buzzed with the low hum of 
conversation and the occasional clink of glass.

Sam, a wounded Army veteran with a weary gaze, slammed his empty mug down, the sound 
reverberating through the bar. He then leaned back, a bitter smile creeping onto his lips.

Sam:   (half-intoxicated after his fourth beer) Look at us here, wasting our lives while 
       drinking and reminiscing about the past.  It’s like we’re stuck in a loop, right? 
       Our whole history is a mess of wasted potential. (belching) You know, people often 
       liken societies to machines that chew us up and spit us out.  We’re the cogs, the 
       fuel, the expendable coolant. And when we’re no longer useful? Tossed aside like 
       yesterday’s trash.

Kris:  (frowning as she pushed a lock of dark hair away from her forehead) That's a bad 
       metaphor, Sam, and you know it. Too cold. It's too easy to dismiss the mess we're 
       in as mere mechanical failure. I prefer to think of societies as living organisms 
       that are constantly growing, adapting, and changing. Tumors do grow no doubt, 
       but we have the power to regenerate, to heal.


Ted:   (laughing bitterly, lifting a cup of imitation coffee) Regeneration? Please. 
       I see American society as a toxic, dying organism. I would describe it not as a 
       tumor, but an invasive parasite. It has poisoned the planet and bled it dry. 
       Look around! We’re like a pack of rats fighting over scraps in a sinking ship. 
       Just a bunch of decaying biomass, rotting from the inside out.

Tim:  (pausing briefly while sipping a cold campari, then carefully set his chipped glass down) 
       We should be careful about the metaphors we use, especially now. The language we 
       use doesn't just describe the world; it shapes the next one. Words have a way of 
       sharing not only our world views, as well as the outcomes of our actions. 
       If we see ourselves as cogs, we’ll act like cogs, mindlessly grinding away.
       If we see ourselves as corpses, we surrender to the rot. 


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from _AmeriSong: Poetry, Art, & Dialogs about Amerika_ by T Newfields
SUMMARY: An attempt to explain the monstrosity of America.
KEYWORDS: America as a machine, metaphors for the USA, American monstrosity,
political metaphors, society as machine, society as organism, metaphors and worldview
american decline, dystopian dialogue, post-apocalyptic philosophy, turtle island

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955)
Begun: 2002 in Nagoya, Japan / Finished: 2024 in Shizuoka, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

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