Welcome To The Placebo Dome

Lovely to see you again!
Welcome to the Placebo Dome
fueled by the fumes
from man’s addiction to petroleum
being a carbon based lifeform
So please be seated
in the climate controlled comfort
of my air-conditioned judgement
as a privileged guest
of the Meta-World Government

Here at the Placebo Dome
gutter crawling
through the twilight zone
is the main event
When them bottom feeders
come to the surface
for a breath of oxycodone
and to purchase a dose of oxygen
all of Wall Street starts a-snorting
In case you hadn’t noticed
… the Placebo Fix is in
Selling water in a plastic bottle
was just the beginning
Here at the Placebo Dome
Gross Planetary Production
is our sacred equation
as we know exactly how
to extract blood from a stone

Here at the Placebo Dome
where sitting on the fence
is your best defence
there’s always more room
on Oprah Winfrey’s couch
In between the Queen
of the American Dream
and the Duchess of Sussex
where human worth
is measured by wealth
and expensively good taste
Our motto here at the Big Placebo
“In Godlessness We Thrust”

To heighten your
Placebo Consciousness ©
please do attend
our meditation classes
With Placebo Mindfulness ™
you can unleash your
inner gods and goddesses
So don’t go leaving
that ego on the shelf!
The key 🗝️
to spiritual happiness
is being totally
centered upon yourself
We guarantee
to leave you self satisfied
You who fully deserves
The Placebo Experience ®
. . . Don’t be denied!

It is truly a privilege to serve
a super star such as yourself
You so richly deserve
that new car from Elon
and a holiday at Club Babylon
Believe me …
we never count the cost
here at the Placebo Dome
luxuriously decorated
with discarded cross trainers
and your obsolete devices
where an ivory tower rises
built from the carcasses
and harvested organs
of slave labour
Lost in the far distance
a future made in China


Here at the Placebo Dome
built from the bones of slavery
upon fields of cotton
the patron saint is Melania
the high priced Princess
from the House of Dior
She who freely dispenses
all her store bought wisdom
to the not so needy and poor
Pilgrims privileged to be graced
with her pulling of the sour face
expressing her saintly long suffering
No doubt a side effect
of Lord Donald’s after-taste
An experience Lady Liberty
most deeply regrets
Yet here at the Placebo Dome
it is polite not to mention
Melania’s slavery to mammon
We call it lucrative captivity
nicely dressed up
in Louis Vuitton
We should all be so lucky
to see Our Slovenian Lady
of the Golden Tower
back in the Big House once again
as her lawyers now negotiate
a contract extension 💰
Four more years and counting

Here at the Placebo Dome
he who’s covered in sin
no matter how corrupt and rich
may pitch the first stone
into the ditch once known
as the great American dream
seen exclusively in virtual reality
on our Jumbotron screen
The Placebo Dome is always here
to provide you an existence
feeding upon what is left
of Planet Earth
and the tattered pieces
of “Globalism” after
the Great Tariff Cataclysm
as you now have nothing
Nothing to fear
but the Placebo itself
So take the course
of least resistance
Be sure to proudly own
a personalised Mark of the Placebo
(the newly approved way
of signalling your virtue)
as you enter the Great Dome
Just don’t go asking
the price of admittance

… by David B. Redpath © 2021-2025

Artwork:
Courtesy of Multiple Michael © 2021-2025

——SCENES FROM DREAM #519——

129 thoughts on “Welcome To The Placebo Dome”

  1. A brilliant story David, full of charming wit and blunt sarcasm …
    “I can hear bells ringing from the Placebo Dome
    Through the cracks in my wall here at home
    And still they are singing the same old anthem
    Hollow words of charming wit and blunt sarcasm
    Resonating from the dysfunctional meetings in Glascow
    Declaring they have saved the planet from a deadly afterglow”

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Thank yew Ivor,
      the poetic archer🏹 😎
      for your gracious commenting
      but I did try my very best
      not to mention with sarcasm
      that town hall meeting
      (or was it a clown convention?)
      in the fine city of Glasgow
      I went there once
      but only to sample
      the fine Scottish whiskey
      but wouldn’t you know
      what happened there
      was a bigger disgrace
      than me (and not Linda)
      getting all Celtic blue 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
      and offa’ my face 🥃
      It’s all very ironic
      as the native Caledonians
      affectionately refer to Glasgow
      as “The Dear Green Place”💚
      That failed convention
      could certainly have done with
      a rampaging William Wallace 💪😎👍

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

    1. I’ll check with you when I’m allowed
      out, as the Dome is in a panicked
      pandemic lock down situation 🔒
      but I think that’s what Russia said
      after the Chernobyl meltdown 🤔
      Carbon dioxideand methane have
      a nasty habit of getting around, just
      like radiation ☢️ ☣️

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

    1. Troubles can either unite us, thus
      bringing out the best in mankind,
      or divide, usually along tribal lines.
      According to Yoda, the future
      is always in in motion, and
      difficult. to see. But whatever is
      to come … I’m sure it’ll be put up
      on the Placebo Dome Jumbotron.
      Thanks Ingrid for tuning in 🙏😎

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
  10. Pingback: Cracks in the Dome – Ivor.Plumber/Poet

  12. Wow, amigo Mr. Redpath, what a superb, superb post and accompanying artwork. Though-provoking, chuckle-inducing, and just beyond-words-excellent. Seriously! I really had to chuckle at the bits about Melania…”She who freely dispenses
    all her store bought wisdom
    to the not so needy … or poor
    Pilgrims privileged to be graced
    with her pulling of the sour face
    expressing her saintly long suffering
    No doubt a side effect
    of Lord Donald’s after-taste” 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Laughing laughing. Thank you for sharing your brilliance and depth with us, my friend! I love your art! Muchos abrazos desde Andalucia (por ahora)💚💚🤗🤗🤗

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  13. Result of being richest is another name for The Placebo Dome. All real facts of slaves’s bones’s Dome are hidden in history. Right point putting up with sarcastic way by you is admirable and thought provoking, dear Redpath !! Well done.👌🖒🖒🖒

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Thank you, Aruna 🙏
      They say that travel broadens the
      mind. It has certainly opened my
      eyes to things we are conditioned
      to ignore in our own backyard.
      Everywhere there are those treated
      as untouchables, consigned to eke
      a living from the trash of others. Breathing the air of heavily polluted despair in New Delhi lit a fire 🔥
      in my overfed belly.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Yeah.true.at Delhi,Lock down has remained from last one week because of Heavy Air Pollution and is continuing for indefinite time.This problem is not in India but many countries are included.We are bear all worst things coz of Our Ambitiously nature of 17 th n 19th ancestors or invaders.Most welcome for putting up the main problems for modern era’s environments, Dear Redpath!!

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Being a child of ruin, the Dome has
      ever been my home away from home.
      Like a Bed & Apocalypse that grows
      more room for doom with every visit.
      If it’s not too late, hopefully we can
      renovate for a future of sun shiny
      weather, K ☀️ 😎

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply
  18. Pingback: Cracks in the Dome – David Redpath

  20. David, your imagination always takes the reader to a unique place. As I was reading, I had an image of John D. Rockefeller and his beloved Standard Oil buying up all of the precious space left under the Dome. After all, they own everything else.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Now that you mention it, Buckeye,
      the Placebo Dome has a luxury
      skybox reserved for the ghost of
      John D. Rockefeller, high up in the
      Seven Sisters of Opec stand.
      After all, the Placebo Dome is a
      meritocracy of desolation.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply
  26. Pingback: Cracks in the Dome – MobsterTiger

    1. On behalf of the seething masses
      I profusely apologise to the filthy
      rich and infamous for ceaselessly
      consuming their worldly resources.
      Thankfully we have the example of
      the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to
      show us greedy commoners how to
      live a modest sustainable lifestyle 😎

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  28. Pingback: Welcome To The Placebo Dome – CYBERWATCH

    1. I do like my espresso strong,
      with an extra hot shot of bitter
      being a caffeine fiend who’s
      down to his very last drop 💧
      at the bitter end of a planetary
      percolation. My epitaph …
      “Bean There, Drunk That ☕”
      Sweet of you to comment.
      Please do come again 🙏 😎

      Like

      Reply

  30. This is so “in your face true” my friend. Great work. I love it. The artwork, the horrid inequalities and how we are destroying our world daily. Wake the heck up folks and if you talk about it but haven’t been doing your part for years, please read again. BRAVO

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  31. Pingback: Welcome To The Placebo Dome – SHOPPEX NIGERIA

      1. I love that song by Placebo. Very classic. 🙂
        And speaking of ‘Alfred Jarry’. I own and read his book (Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician). Super surrealism of imagery and the vocabulary is far ahead of its time. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      2. It is impossible to overestimate Alfred
        Jarry’s influence on the culture that us
        postmodern creatures were marinated
        in. Yet rarely is credit given (Perhaps…
        because he was French 🤔🕶️)

        “One can show one’s contempt for
        the cruelty and stupidity of the world
        by making of one’s lfe a poem of
        incoherence and absurdity.” ~ Alfred Jarry

        Liked by 1 person

      3. “…there are only hallucinations, or perceptions, and that there are neither nights nor days…and that life is continuous; yet that one would never be aware of its continuity, nor even that life exists without these pendulum movements; and life is primarily verified by the beating of the heart”
        ― Alfred Jarry

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Love is all there is,
        It makes the world go ’round
        Love and only love, it can’t be denied
        No matter what you think about it
        You just won’t be able to do without it
        Take a tip from one who’s tried

        ~ Bob Dylan

        🌐🩵🌊 💕😎💞 👁️💥👁️⚡♾️

        Liked by 1 person

      6. “Beloved, let us [unselfishly] love and seek
        the best for one another, for love is from God,
        and everyone who loves [others] is born of God
        and knows God [through personal experience].”

        ~ John the Disciple (amplified version)

        “Love is 2 minutes and 52 seconds of
        squelching noises. It’s no good being
        nice and young and naive. There’s no
        good in that at all. You’ve got to do it all
        yourself, and you’ve gotta learn quick.”

        ~ Johnny Rotten (often amplified ) 🤔🕶️

        Liked by 1 person

  35. David, excellent swipe at All Things Fleeting and the system that feeds the masses hungry for something… They know not what, but the transitory dopamine hit that comes through scrolling through reels will satisfy them. For now.
    Meanwhile, the voice that says “Come unto me, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” becomes fainter and fainter. I mourn for many in this world. 😢

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Judgement is God’s business.
      along with vengeance … But,
      I must confess, sarcasm is my
      weakness. A crime for which
      I best seek forgiveness 🙏😎
      I guess 🤔🕶️ I need temper
      my bitterness 🔥 with a touch
      of grace, in a world 🌎 where
      kindness is so out of place❓

      Thanks for the visit, Darryl 🙏

      Like

      Reply

    1. Thanks Priti 🙏 I’ll book you a place ☑️
      Our Cosmic Conscious Mindfulness ®
      classes will put you in touch with the
      Universe, as you explore the endless
      expanse of your own headspace 🗣️
      Cheap at half the price 💲😎

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  37. Brilliant! I especially loved the lines:

    “With Placebo Mindfulness ™
    you can unleash your
    inner gods and goddesses
    So don’t go leaving
    that ego on the shelf!
    The key to spiritual happiness
    is being totally
    centered upon yourself    “

    You capture precisely the prevailing culture.
    God help us all.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you very much, Anna 🙏😎
      As the Mad Men of Madison Avenue
      say, it pays to advertise … in a world
      deep in the quick sand of click bait,
      following shallow influencers,
      all promising a new & Improved you.

      “But understand this, that in the last days
      dangerous times [of great stress and
      trouble] will come [difficult days that will
      be hard to bear]. For people will be lovers
      of self [narcissistic, self-focused], lovers
      of money [impelled by greed], boastful,
      arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, [and they
      will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane],
      irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of
      self-control [intemperate, immoral], brutal,
      haters of good, traitors, reckless, conceited,
      lovers of [sensual] pleasure rather than
      lovers of God.”

      ~ 2 Timothy 3:1-4 AMP

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  38. A deep write and images.
    Canadian here – doesn’t feel so placebo(ish) … maybe we’ve run out of pills, while waiting for trump to starve us out, or invade.
    “ELBOWS UP”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Someone is conducting a clinical
      trial by combat. A placebo-controlled
      trial where a combative bully seems
      to be in control, and there’s no real
      choice between two opposing groups.
      Thank goodness for that limited
      safety of distance, Australian being
      10,000 miles away from a bubbling
      cauldron of dystopia 🤔🕶️ I can only
      imagine being stuck to the northern
      border of the USA, wondering what
      nonsense is going down today ⬇️
      besides the stock market, and the
      world economy 🌎
      Hang in there, Resa 🙏💛 ✊ 💪😎

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Listening to the song you sent, now. Thank you, David! I know who Nils is, but not his music. It’s wonderful.
        Yes, you are fortunate to be 10,000 miles away.
        It is painful to watch the USA fall into authoritarianism. I’m rooting for the people to stop it. It’s up to them.
        Meantime, we are definitely effected here in Canada.
        It seems a synonym for tariff is assholism.
        We go to the polls 2 weeks today. We have a chance to elect a person who is AMAZING!!!
        He is leading.
        However, it is mind boggling how many sheeple are going to vote for our maple mini trump.
        It seems ignorance and meanness are in fashion with the …the others.
        Thank you for your encouraging comment, and I will hang in!
        ELBOWS UP!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Through the malaise of a deep purple
        haze 🟣 AMAZING won! 🇨🇦 Trump the
        Disrupter 🧟 having stirred up those
        freedom loving antibodies ✊😎 🏴‍☠️
        against a despot who wants the lot 👑💰

        Like

  40. David, this is an amazing write, and
    artwork is wild and provocative. I love the
    honesty, frankness, and downright irony.
    Everything about this piece reminds me of
    things that my husband and I have talked
    about. I liked how you started out talking
    about our addiction to gas and bottled water,
    haha – so true. We drive a little smart car
    and have had two over the years. You bring up
    so many important issues. Slavery is at an
    all-time high and many people don’t even
    know this. I loved the bit about the orange
    man’s aftertaste. I had to read that out
    loud to my husband. I love the name of this
    piece as well, just super creative and you
    obviously put a lot of work into this as well.
    Some of my favorite quotes, I just have
    to mention because they are all so true and
    spot on – and good for you for writing
    this piece at a time when many of us are
    wondering if this will be the end.
    “Lucrative captivity, holiday at Babylon
    built from the carcasses of harvested organs
    of slave labour, sitting on the fence is your best
    defense, always more room on Oprah Winfreys
    couch.” Wow, you really wrote some
    incredibly vivid truths here that one cannot
    help but appreciate. Next he will take our
    trees, and we will be using those patented
    robotic bees, and he will ship more innocent
    people overseas. I still mourn the loss of the
    young children that have never been found
    from his first term. I still can’t help but
    think of what happened to him and I know
    without saying that you can imagine with your
    extremely bright mind some of the obvious
    possibilities, all of which are unthinkable, and
    what about those parents.
    Many moons ago, a guy who had worked at
    a local grocery chain told me one of his first
    duties in the morning was putting the labels
    on their bottled water and filling them up at the
    sink, which took hours, and that is what people
    were buying, so much for glacier water.
    Societal lies just keep on coming, and they
    are only going to get worse with this current
    administration of billionaires.
    David, thank you for this amazing post and
    the honesty in which you share the truth of our
    situation today in a frightening world of crazy
    with a moldy red-dyed cherry on top. A great
    piece of writing and the cadence of this piece
    is so catchy. Big hugs and blessings, Joni

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Un Grazie Estremo, Joni 🙏💛 😎
      Your kind comments have awakened my
      senses to a disturbance in the force 🤫🕶️
      Something orange 🍊 this way comes …

      “No Conspiracy!”,
      the ugly face of capitalism keeps repeating.
      . . . “I am the fulfillment of prophecy, and
      sound fiscal policy ⬇️ The Great Disruption
      is my gift to those who voted for me. Chaos
      and poverty upon all those who oppose me!”.
      He just won’t stop talking . . . 🙉
      “The idle masses needed to be taught a lesson.
      All this environmental activism, demanding of
      rights, and protesting what the Armaments
      Industry is getting up to in foreign lands, and
      in their name. It’s none of their business!. So let
      them be filled with fear and trepidation as they
      worry where their next paycheck is coming from.
      And doesn’t Big Pharma love it when the people
      get nervous💲
      There’s no conspiracy!
      It’s just me, The Great Disruptor, playing dice
      with their reality … whilst living out my destiny.”

      Like

      Reply

      1. No kidding David, all so very true. You hit on so many things in this piece and did it with such amazing creativity. It is a great reminder of just how nuts our life is right now. One has to cut off notifications to stop the insane surveys and shut out the blasting noise coming from a rancid source of crazy and yes definitely true about “Big Pharma,” so what if people can not get their insulin or other life-sustaining drugs as the wealthy can always buy great care. I really appreciated this piece of writing David as it is a kind of validation from someone you truly respect online and also the fact that we can all read reliable news sources and obtain an idea at least of what is going on, and just keep praying. I am grateful for my faith. Your artwork is always so vividly stunning as well as super creative. Give your lady my best as well and thanks again for this piece.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. La ringrazio molto, Joni.
        Hoping you and yours had a blessed Easter
        (Good Friday being the original Liberation Day).
        Speaking of Linda, she’s had me hunting for
        Easter eggs, along with two hundred or more
        small children she claims I’m related to 🤔🕶️
        I’m now sugar rushing like a chocolate rabbit🐰
        (nothing to do with that 4/20 – International Counterculture Holiday, as I’m not particularly
        countercultured 😎).

        Like

  41. ‘… the Placebo Fix is in
    Selling water in a plastic bottle
    was just the beginning’
    now when the scientists are saying the water selling in plastic bottles is a killer, Science seems to be based on assumptions with no clarity on results. The weak with open hands accept it all though.
    Have you watched a series on Physicists? ‘Three Worlds’, probably a Chinese series where Physicists commit suicide as Physics exist not.
    The more the world is becoming greedy the more the world is suffering, and they call this happiness by laughing out loud.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. I have long suspected that Professor
      Brian Cox doesn’t really know what he’s
      talking about 🤔🕶️ Along with the many
      governing authorities that approve the
      medicines, and food additives, that later
      prove to be deadly poisons ☠️ It’s a real
      problem.
      I haven’t seen ‘Three Worlds’ yet, but I
      will now with your recommendation.
      Thanks Kritika 🙏😎

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  42. Dude. As a general rule I stay poetically far away from politics, seeking to project the benefits of unity rather than the inherent despair of competition. But I LOL’d all the way through this brilliant summary of current and currently potential reality ~ God, you really said it. This was nothing short of brilliant. I think you should explore more free verse. Powerful.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Thank you, Anna …
      Greatly appreciated 🙏😎
      Unity is the best, and only,
      hope for humanity 🌎 ☮️
      When the people are divided,
      they’ve already been defeated.
      Being an undocumented alien 👽
      I try my best to stay impartial, but
      the tribal drumbeats, disturbing
      my peace✌️😎 just keep getting
      louder 🗣️📢 🙉 Probably better to
      say nothing for a spell 🙊 than end
      up in a Venezuelan jail cell 🤔🕶️

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      2. I’m an Aussie too, but originally
        from New York. Long Island to be
        precise. From my perspective the
        “Placebo” is a global pandemic that
        can be traced back to the Garden of
        Eden, through to the fall of Western
        Civilization. The one constant is
        Homo Sapien. Princes and Kings
        build glorious palaces, Pharaohs
        built pyramids to honour themselves.
        All humanity now has the technology
        to glorify themselves (… if only on
        social media) from atop of a
        telecommunications tower, like
        some modern day Tower of Babel.
        Meanwhile divisive tribalism, fully
        loaded with hatreds ancient, is on
        the rise. Needless to say, I’m so
        glad to call Australia home, where
        there’s the freedom to stay out
        from under the Placebo Dome.

        Liked by 1 person

  44. Is the dome referring in one sense to a famous Washington DC building? Capitol building or White House maybe? Don’t mind my ignorance, am an Aussie, and whilst we are almost a 51st/52nd/53rd state, we don’t study your architecture much outside of the ubiquitous filmage from the overbearing cultural imperialism, and we aren’t yet required to learn the names of all the other states and past presidents etc

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. The Dome covers a multitude of
      sins … as Love 💟 is out of fashion.
      Littered with the Memorials to War,
      the social engineering of tribalism
      upholds the Dome. You must bow
      to the Placebo 💵 and salute it’s flag
      if you are to be part of the system 💰
      “From Vietnam to Afghanistan, do your
      duty when the Placebo calls you!” 🏅🎖️
      The age of enlightenment has been
      snuffed out, and the ugly face of
      capitalism now holds court in the
      White House. Love is on the back
      foot … hate is on the rampage, as
      the future accelerates with no brakes,
      and a dead man’s hand on the wheel.
      History repeats itself with an exclamation
      mark‼️The barbarians are no longer
      at the gates. They are the Captains
      of the Disruption Industry, and
      assorted Heads of State. Pawns all
      washed away in n the high tide 🌊♟️
      of prophecy … one bright shiny day 🌞

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  45. Brilliant indeed… I keep thinking of the song and film Liberty Valance… But now, instead of Mr. Smith, it seems Liberty has gone -and settled in- to Washington. Lord have mercy.

    Like

    Reply

    1. It’s a shoot out at the O.K. Corral between
      the good, the bad, and the ugly. I wonder,
      what would Clint Eastwood do? 🤔🕶️
      (John Wayne was a bit extreme on the
      right wing … so I won’t be asking him 😎)

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a comment