Welcome to the Baby Wants It’s Bottle Podcast, a creative project By Martin Anton Smith, a NZ based creative.

In this episode a quick fun Poem which echoes the world of surveillance and authoritarian dystopia, which loosely draws from the two great pillars of dystopian fiction: Brave New World (Huxley) and 1984 (Orwell). Those two classics are basically my favorite pieces of prophetic fiction. This was written on the road, in Queenstown NZ. Some interesting facts about the cultural refences this poem are:

– The “Scoobie Doo” reference; was inspired by “Neil” (Played by Nigel Planer) from the UK Comedy “The Young Ones” . As a kid in the 90s I saw the re runs on NZ TV, there was one episode where the flat’s TV was not working, and when the clueless hippy “Neil” was told this by socialist philosophy student “Rick” (Played by Rik Mayal), he said “Oh No, I’ll Die If I Miss Scoobie Doo”.

-For those under 20, “Scoobie Doo”, was an Iconic kids show from the 70’s and 80’s, where a bunch of characters solved mysteries – at the end of the show the bad guy was inevitably caught and said “And I would’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling kids”, that line would later became a commonly used tag line.

-The TV walking around the room, is some vague 80’s idea and slightly inspired “my tellys gone bung”, from iconic kiwi, (yes I called it a kiwi band, you stealin’ aussies!) band Crowded House B side album “Afterglow”, an album I was fond of in the early 2000s.

-The unique authoritarian salute, is required for any bad authoritarian regime , The circle somehow seemed correct for “there is no end there is no beginning” mantra.

-‘antiques roadshow’ was very popular on NZ TV in the 1990s.

-“Own Will ” Purchases outlawed at midnight hints at technology giving you less and less free will to buy and sell, which is a common theme from the revelation chapter in the bible, and also very prescient with digital currencies and the ability to control every aspect of commerce that comes with software systems.

Now with introductive frivolities over and done with….Lets Begin this Episode.

“There is No Beginning, There is No End, There Just Is ” Poem by M.A. Smith

Yes we’re havin’ trouble with the telly

It’s become. Alive again.

It’s not only talkin’ rubbish,

It’s also walk-in round the room

Complaining about the reception.

To which I reply meekly:

If you wouldn’t chap

Please Hurry up kind tv sir,

scoobie doo is on in 5 mins,

And I’ll die if I miss it!

To which my regal tv replies:

You’ll be watching antiques roadshow,

none of this scoobie doo rubbish,

Now give me seventy seven push ups, quicksmart.

Failure to comply will result in permanent erasure.

As the sweat rolls down my brow,

As my arms fill with lactic acid,

I begin to rue my purchase.

A voice in my head instructed me,

To purchase the the Samsung Winston Smith TV,

A fully autonomous robotic AI tv .

It would be my last “own will “ purchase.

“Own will purchases were outlawed at midnight”

Says Samsung Winston , but’s he also now uses the tag line

“All hail The Aurora , our great AI leader , never wrong and always right.”

Then I must salute the screen, deferingly .

On one knee, with both hands raised straight,

My hands clasped in a circular fashion,

So as to form a circle.

I repeat the mantra, as I salute

There is no beginning , there is no end, there just is

There is no beginning , there is no end, there just is

There is no beginning , there is no end, there just is.

But in my mind, There is a recurring thought

I wonder when this will all end.

How did this begin?

There must be a better .

The end.

END OF POEM

Thankyou for listening to the Baby wants It’s Bottle Podcast, A creative project by Martin Anton Smith, a NZ based creative. This podcast is available on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.

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