The Mastery of Ego

Evolution has dealt me a bad hand

For what is good is not what I feel

What is just is not what I want

What is right makes me feel sick to my soul

Life, for me, is a battle against the self

Denial of impulses, never an indulgence

For if control were to slip, even for a minute

The ego would take over, and bring me happiness

It would bring me security through control of others

It would bring me freedom by restricting others

It would bring me success at the cost of others

It would keep me safe from the will of others

These feelings are valid, so I'm always told

I can feel what I feel, and not be ashamed

Yet how can this be true, when what I have to do

Is work on them, always, to make them go away

Male ego is cause of most evil deeds

Competition, violence, dominance, intended to appease

The emptiness inside that all men feel

As our minds make us fight for a world that isn't real

Yet the feelings persist, the need to control.

Constant fear of weakness, inferiority

I'm tired of it all, I don't want to compete

But if I don't then I'll lose everything I hold dear

For everything on Earth is a zero-sum game

Food, shelter, and love, given only if you pay

And if someone will pay more than I ever can

Then what can I do but watch it go away

But all is fair in love and in war

Both much closer than I thought before

For freedom is the right to choose your own path

To turn away from weakness and towards strength

I will not control, I will not restrict

For these things are unjust in all walks of life

Yet these are the things my mind wants for me

And never can I have them, no security here

I'm resigned to my fate, these things I must do

To fit in to society, to not overstep.

I've mastered my ego, I've brought it to heel

And I'm endlessly sad in this rock and hard place