FREAKS

No-one would pretend that 'freaks'

Were in a majority in the lower class;

For they are conspicuously a tiny minority

Compared with that great mass of philistines

Who constitute the proletarian generality.

Undoubtedly the most culturally precocious members

Of their class, they are the type

From whom a future leadership could be drawn,

A type who are civilized ...

On their own outsider's terms

In advance of the generality

And who, once in power,

Would transmit their culture to the masses

And thus make them more civilized in due turn,

Having first pioneered the way

In an unofficial capacity

Within the church/state civilization

And acquired a knowledge of and allegiance to

The transcendental culture to-come.

But by a curious paradox

Their future role would place them

Outside the mainstream culture of the People.

For you cannot transmit culture

And be civilized at the same time.

What you gain on the unofficial roundabout

You must lose on the official swings.

Civilized in advance of the masses,

You cannot be civilized with them.