A Constitutional Note: Two Poems

In my article, 
The Modern Empire in Your Living Room, I conclude by saying I'm drawing a new map, and that "its constitution are the poems forged from my rage." Readers have asked what that means.

The Modern Empire in Your Living Room

The Modern Empire in Your Living Room: 
When "Friendship" Is a Colonial Charter

~How I learned to spot the extraction disguised as connection—and how you can too.

By Sunny Wang

It started with a vision. Not a grand one, but the kind we’ve all had: the hope for a new friend. She was a fellow writer, a spiritual seeker, someone building a new life an ocean away. She spoke the language of the heart. We shared stories of survival. I offered help—a ride, some sightseeing, links to houses for sale. It felt like the beginning of something beautiful and mutual.

The following year, she returned. I offered rides, and we spent time together. This year, she bought a car, but her house hunt stalled. She asked me for storage space and an introduction to a friend with a parking spot before she left the country again. A few weeks after she was gone, I realized I had become a character in a play I never auditioned for. My time was now part of her “shared

The Totalitarian Playbook in Plain Sight

How to Spot Authoritarian Control in Spiritual and Academic Groups

Who Shot the Sheriff?

A Whimsical Look at the Virtue-Vigilante Inside Us All

Hello, dear reader. Let’s sit together for a moment in the quiet space between our ideals and our imperfections. If you’ve ever sought to be better, kinder, or wiser, you’ve likely met a curious character along the road—the part of you (or someone else) that mistakes virtue for a weapon, and compassion for a compliance checklist.

With a gentle smile, let’s call this character the Virtue Sheriff.

It’s that internal (or external) voice that patrols the borders of right thought and correct behavior, siren blaring, ready to pull over any soul speeding too fast toward enlightenment—or idling too long in doubt. It confuses righteousness for being right, and policing for peacekeeping.

“Power-Under”

We talk a lot about bullies, tyrants, and narcissists—those who wield "Power-Over" others with threats, manipulation, and control. We can list their tactics: gaslighting, intimidation, love-bombing, stonewalling. But we miss the other half of the story, the silent partner in this toxic dance.

This is the story of the "Power-Under" position. It's not about weakness. It's about the brilliant, heartbreaking, and ultimately self-caging survival script a person learns when "Power-Over" is the only language spoken in their world.