The Art of

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The people are guilty of only one thing:
stupidity.
The newly enfranchised proletariat is guilty of only one thing:
it doesn’t want to learn.
The upper classes are guilty of one thing – among many:
they’re too clever.
The artists are guilty of only one thing:
making art.
The critics and intellectuals are only guilty of the fact
that they have experienced nothing.
The economists can be held liable for only one thing:
that they string threads through the cavities in our teeth.
Politicians can be absolved of only one crime:
that they want the people, the papas-mamas, on their side.
God and the Jews are guilty
of earning too much money in Auschwitz.
The freedom girls are guilty
of driving daggers into hidden man-parts.
The guild of patriarchs bear the guilt
for hiding themselves in mouse-holes.
The Soviets pulling the strings were guilty
in deed of achieving all too smashing a success.
The Democrats are ever guiltless:
they’ve never done anything but forget.
We all carry the inner guilt
smoking Coca-Cola in cloisters.
BORIS LURIE, SEPTEMBER 19, 1998