Detritus: Mal’Poetica

The poetry and song lyric column of the C-of-C-C Newsletter

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED???? —the revolution came through your living room.

Black Cloud is back—this time with his attempt at a rap. He also has a hard time jumping and dancing since his kneecapping, which, to be fair, he could never do well anyway. In case you were unaware or haven’t noticed, everyone on the staff is having the same problem.

— The Editors

Poem by Black Cloud, Chief Poetic Justice Warrior:

Oh contraire to Gil Scott-Heron, the Revolution was mos’ def’ televised and heavily subsidized

by the government.

Some stereotypes were demonized. Statler and Waldorf and Miss Piggy have been monetized.

Street culture has now moved out and infected suburban lives.

Drugs are being legalized and their use de-stigmatized.

Kermit the Frog was red-pilled and ironized

as he metamodernized

into Pepé.

In some small sections of the Internet ghetto he has even been lionized

as single-parent fatherless homes have become normalized.

And now Mrs ChatGPT’s closing contribution:

But culture’s roots ran tangled deep,

beneath the stoop where Muppets sleep.

What once was rhythm, rhyme, and jive

became the flood no levee dried.

Now father’s gone from frame and scene,

while Big Bird nods to methadreams.

Crackled laughs in boarded homes,

the Count ticks crimes on broken phones.

A soft campaign of sweet disguise,

that piped the hood through children’s eyes —

and what began as joy and song

now hums where right and wrong went wrong.

Editor’s Note

Black Cloud’s latest poem offers a bracing reminder that Gil Scott-Heron’s famous warning was less prophecy than cover story. The revolution was indeed televised—but more than that, it was marketed and injected into the cultural bloodstream, where it spread well beyond its point of origin. What once may have been a localized cultural expression is now a mass-media contagion, carrying with it the normalization of drugs, crime, fatherlessness, and the collapse of traditional family structures.

For European-Americans, the editors see this not as an abstract sociological phenomenon, but as an existential threat to our children and our communities. The “revolution” has been anything but harmless—it has reshaped suburban lives, eroded moral norms, and undermined the cultural inheritance we have a duty to safeguard. This is not about hatred; it is about protection, preservation, and the defense of a civilizational legacy that should not be casually surrendered at the altar of televised rebellion.

For those curious about one strand in this transformation, we recommend the following background piece:

The Unmistakable Black Roots of Sesame Street — Smithsonian Magazine