All Things Being Equal

 

 

“All things being equal”

You say it and I say it,

But what do we really mean

Or is it a secret?

 

Does it mean one thing for me

And another for you

Or does it depend

On what’s currently in view?

 

It is my aim

In these next few lines

To briefly convey to you

What is on my mind.

 

Picture this, if you may,

This postmodern world

In which we are now so bright

We practise the absurd.

 

And picture, if you may,

The many things we say

That do not make any sense

But yet sense convey.

 

 

“All things being equal”

Is clearly one of them

And “in the foreseeable future”

I have a problem.

 

I have addressed the latter

Only recently

And the former I do so now!

Another impossibility.

 

There are no absolutes

Says postmodern thinking

But “all things being equal”

Shows how fast we are sinking.

 

Sinking in duplicity

Not to mention stupidity

And these nice sounding phrases

Expose our gullibility.

 

Some things are equal

And some things, definitely not

Hence, all things being equal

Is definitely rot!

 

When one makes a promise

On all things being equal

You can guarantee, my friend,

That’s a recipe for trouble.

 

It’s not likely to happen

You better not hold your breath,

You are likely to asphyxiate

Thus, causing your death.

 

 

All things being equal

Is a mathematics impossibility

Where equations are unsolvable

Given myriad eventualities.

 

All things being equal

 Is tomorrow that never comes

And so, with my point made

 I am definitely done.

 

Stewart Russell © November 4, 2021