Rewards

Ensuring wrongthink remains
restricted in its travels
              to rutted country lanes

the Overton window
— with a view to dissuading
       any straying from its frame —

has its limits skilfully reinforced
by the thought-funneling power
inherent  in the awarding of awards

trophies   promotions positions
       honours laurels   distinctions
instruments all of subliminal control;
discourse-circumscribing icons
                            of ego-stroking gold

grown-up versions
of those glistening stars
teachers   stuck in notebooks of old;

       grown-up diversions
       supplied by the powers that are
       but should never be or have been;

widely-publicized  highly-prized ribbons
issued   in all too shrewd recognition
                            of obedient behaviour;

issued   by servants of the pseudo-elites
       like so many fetchingly flavoured
                     hypnotically-Pavlovian treats


prestige-wielding tools whose principal use
is the nudging and sculpting of culture;
sought-after symbols bestowed to induce
an implicit  ideological submissiveness

       bestowed  as tacit rewards
                     for either lending support
       or for merely refraining from taking
       exception  to establishment agendas

— symbols of alleged progressiveness
whose very acceptance
lays bare their thrilled recipients'
                     servility-signaling deafness

       to the blaring dissonance
       of their dissent-squelching influence.