Degrees of Obedience

Short on cogitation   long on repetition
a sense-drilled-out-of-him curriculum victim;
an overschooled fool  methodically misled
              by the expertly misleading system

       the quintessential intellectual flunky
       a distinguished  received-opinion-junkie
              our star so-called scholar
              was compliantly addicted
              to a rigid diet of unquestioning study.


An academic yes-man
       an accomplished parrot
a tenured automaton  an educated dope;
                     a paragon of learning
                            by means of mindless rote

he beamed with pride at the letters
that like a tether of weathered chain
       he never failed to unspool
       into the depths at the end of his name.

He beamed at the mere sight and thought
of all these sought-after alphabetic links
that anchored his claim to scholastic fame
       as he basked in the summa cum light
       of having earned the conspicuous right

to trumpet these  the jargon-ingesting proof
                     and hoop-jumping culmination
of his collegiate-cartel-sanctioned
                                          ersatz education


and having become a cant jangling jester
a registered expert   at transmitting
              his academese-steeped disease;
a lauded champion  of the mauling of logic
                     and the mangling of language

       an impeccably vetted adept
              at scientific/semantic perversion;
       one of mental corruption's illustrious
              preeminent accredited merchants


and having evolved into all of these
nothing would prevent
much less impede  his speedy ascent

to that prestigious catbird seat   that perch
reserved for the highest high priest
              and current dispenser-in-chief
                                   of certified quackery

in the graduate factory's fabulous faculty
                     of pseudo-scientific studies.


A model indoctrinator
       an ideological clown
              a doctrine bound buffoon;
an inquiry despising  curiosity deterring
                            conformity enforcing goon

our star so-called scholar
— while pretending to defend and foster
              all things enlightened and liberal —
was secretly sworn to thwart critical thinking

       being as he was a big deal
                     in the well-dissembled field
       of advanced enhancement of blinkering.