What is the proper function of government
when people irritate us
with avocado
at every successive disaster?
The only weekend uniform
totalizing the utopianism of
absolute political freedom
is looking young.
Can I beat jet lag with
a giant pretense
of grief
for being a human being on this earth?
I had a baby months ago and I still feel
unexpected post-Kantian affinities
with the pelvic floor
of economic success.
What’s not to like
about an instinct for self-preservation
when you want to impress
people who have died?
Do I really need
the sensation of eating a cake
to feel guilty
about cancer?
Isn’t everyone selfish
about getting laid
in a world set free of
female breadwinners?
Is it time to freeze your
life-based teleology
with the porn you’re watching
about under-eye circles?
Renounce the material world
with multiple careers
in a complex economy
of being agreeable.
Doesn’t life require
having less sex
when there are no victims
of good taste?
An excerpt of a script for Rand/Goop, a six-channel video installation by Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley commissioned by Studio Voltaire, London, and on view July 5–October 6, 2019. The script is a collage drawn from the works of Ayn Rand, her followers, and titles from the lifestyle website Goop.
