LYRIC: Progressing Ever Backwards

Screaming-don't you hear it?

Screaming-I can hear it

Begging for sustainability

Climate-going crazy

Wildlife-dying daily

Death-throes of a raped and pillaged world

Green turns to concrete

Clear a wood erect a street

Hear me scream

Profit-before survival

Defeat-business rivals

Anything OK to get on top

Chokin-on their cost-cuts

Burning-from corners cut

Commodifying the environment

Progressing ourselves

Out of a future

Hear me scream

This is the 21st century

Exploited so the richest can achieve

We're so advanced, we've got so much money

We're just lacking everything we need

Progress-supposed to take us 

Forward-I only see us

Racing backwards to our destruction

Once we've -exploited all that

Earth has-on it to give us

Priced it up and put it up for sale

I have just one question for you

Where are you planning to live?

Hear me scream

LYRIC: Retail Therapy

Got no food to feed yourself

Let alone your starving kid

Can't afford your sky-high rent

Downsized you can't afford shit!

Got conditions in urgent need

Of by a doctor being seen

But such notions are just daydreams

You can't afford such luxury

These days nothing goes for free

Except maybe your sanity

Pressure choking killing you

But what the fuck are you going to do?

Feel alone and forgotten

No help around for your problems

Here is some advice for you

Compassion and help are yesterday's news

Sorry

Only one suggestion for you it's all there is I hope it's some use?

Shut up and shop

Shop 'till you drop

Dead

LYRIC: We’re Not The Good Guys

So good to cheer for the home team

I fly my flag and I watch the news

We fight for right – that’s what it seems

The screaming crowds block other views

With intentions honourable, mistakes are often made

We’re always sorry

Collateral damage is a price to pay

We think it’s worth it just to save the day

We only kill when it will save lives

We’re not the good guys

We never were

The other is my enemey

We’re always on the winning side

The cheerleaders on my TV

Explain the other has to die

More murdered civilians – mistakes are often made

We’re always sorry

But murder ain’t murder if you have a rank

And if it helps put money in the bank

We only kill when it will save lives

We’re not the good guys

We never were

It’s hard to believe what I say

But believe me it’s harder to believe the lies

Historical record displays empirical fact that we’re not the good guys

We’re not the good guys

We never were

LYRIC: We Are The Rascal Multitude

I had a dream the other night

A teacher barking orders at the class

But instead of obeying

Some kids put up their hands and politely asked

How life would be, if from an early age

We were all treated as equals not as someone else's slaves

The class agreed that they wouldn't let themselves

Be pushed around unquestioned by anybody else

We all accept too much

This rogue consensus

Whilst deep inside we see

Better possibilities 

Each day there's someone who says no

Questioning norms and analyzing facts

This rebel lives inside us all

It is that itch we're so afraid to scratch

But still we do because we know that something's wrong

The game has been corrupted and we just won't play along

And so many of us try in our own little ways

To struggle through conventions and try to make a change

And they, the ones in charge

Shake, scared, and try so hard

To quell the rabble's dissent

But we just come back again

We are the rascal multitude 

Here to voice our opinions too

There's more of us than there are of you

And together we just cannot lose

You've manipulated much too much

Made us buy into all of your myths

But we never go away

We keep on coming back

We can see when we're cheated

And who exactly is stacking the decks

You try and cloud our seeing eyes

And say we're free when we're clearly oppressed

You have the tools, the media and money

And I guess you think it's funny that we're dying for your cause

But still we come, struggling against you

You may silence one movement but there's always plenty more

For life, lived on our knees

Is not life, it's slavery

We won't rest until we're free

And we've smashed your ideology

We are the rascal multitude 

Here to voice our opinions too

There's more of us than there are of you

And together we just cannot lose

You've manipulated much too much

Made us buy into all of your myths

But we never go away

We keep on coming back

We are the rascal multitude

We'll never go away

LYRIC: Socrates Wept

I was going to work and I wondered why

I was paying my rent and I wondered why

I was following the rules and I wondered why

I was ignoring my thoughts and I wondered why

I was watching TV and I wondered why

I was believing the news and I wondered why

I was supporting the war and I wondered why

I was feeling quite sick and I wondered why

Resist the unexamined life

I was buying more things and I wondered why

I was praying to God and I wondered why

I was voting last year and I wondered why

I was smoking again and I wondered why

I was hating myself and I wondered why

I was blinding myself and I wondered why

I was denying myself and I wondered why

So much acceptance unthinking and I wondered why

Resist the unexamined life

LYRIC: The Bigger Picture

Lost in sensationalism, a pop-culture prison

Incoherent image parade

Another news flash, but nothing that lasts

Just soundbites and vacuous commentary

Here today gone tomorrow, our media forsakes

It's purpose to keep us informed

Preferring to make a climate fit for shopping

Than one fit for democracy

We're living in the information age

And we know less than we did before

We see the words and feel the emotions they want us to feel 

But miss out on understanding

As shallow reporting abut non-incidents

Takes precedent over our need to be informed

On issues affecting our lives

Not about what there is to buy

Disjointed stories out of context 

Give us nothing but so much wasted paper

The information superhighway

Has been diverted down a byway

Keeping us fooled, by their slanting

Feed us the facts sans understanding

They're out to please advertisers not to inform you or me

Flickering visuals

News shown like rock videos

Incomplete events

A billion stories all sadly lacking and

Stop!

What about the bigger picture?

They're out to please advertisers, not to inform you or me.

LYRIC: Same Ideologies/ Different Hairstyles

They're doing that dance again

Using all the same moves

Each one claiming concern

And an interest in you

They offer me up a choice

That gives me no choice

And participation

That gives me no voice

My representatives represent nothing I want or need

Behind the rhetoric and lies, there ain't nothing but greed

Same ideologies different hairstyles, same pro-freemarket creed

The choice of who sickens me less, that's my democracy

They say all the right things, promise us the earth

Such meaningless statements, the truth as clear as dirt

The same mistake every four years

And when has it ever paid off?

They play on our hopes and our fears

And fuck us again and again and again

They're raking it in-as we are suffering-just to profit them

No choice-between the parties-it's just the monied-whose interests are taken account of

When there's no meaning left in voting, disenfranchised all are we

We can't let them get away with this deception anymore

We are the many and they just the priveledged few

We have the numbers now all that's left to do is to...

Find our hearts, build our strength and reclaim what is ours once again

LYRIC: The Trap

A question

I want you to answer me

If you can’t be yourself can you really be called free?

Employment

That shackled compromise

To give up who we are so our bank accounts can rise

I WEAR THE PLASTIC SMILE AND I

PERFORM SO EASILY AND I

PRETEND NORMALITY AND I

CHOKE DOWN CONFORMITY AND I

FEIGN THIS IS SANITY AND I

INDULGE DEPRAVITY AND I

STUNT MY CAPACITY AND I

PLAY ALONG WITH YOUR WORLD

The system

To which our membership is birth

And from which we can’t escape until we’re buried under earth

Is to trade our greatest days for the promise of a wage

And trade possibility for the comfort of a cage

Where we can rage amongst the beige until we reach retirement age

Exploited at every stage like Karl Marx warned on every page

Of those books we never read because we had to get ahead

Working hard, overtime, I can relax when I’m dead

Except I can’t

Because I’d no longer exist

And the one life that I had was just an opportunity missed

All those things I never did, all the sights I didn’t see

All because I strove to be a dedicated employee

First to start and last to leave

Achieve each task you could conceive

Sacrifice and sweat and bleed to serve my boss’s every need

And for what?

Why did I make this sacrifice?

So I could pay all my bills on time but have no time for my life?

I WEAR THE PLASTIC SMILE AND I

PERFORM SO EASILY AND I

PRETEND NORMALITY AND I

CHOKE DOWN CONFORMITY AND I

FEIGN THIS IS SANITY AND I

INDULGE DEPRAVITY AND I

STUNT MY CAPACITY AND I

PLAY ALONG WITH YOUR WORLD

The trap

Which seems to sucker us in turn

Is the idea that a living is a thing you ought to earn

You don’t earn what is a right, it should be yours without a fight

And what we buy would still exist if all the costs were just dismissed

Because the price is far too high if we must work until we die

Yet to ask why, and not comply, is a sure path to suicide 

We took all their fictions and lived like they’re real

Economists laugh with duplicitous zeal

And inside our bones you know we all feel,

That we’re not paid enough for the hours that they steal

But that alarm

Rips us from sleep again each day

And too tired to complain we can’t see another way

But to climb on that treadmill and to our daily grind commute

Stuck in a rut, routine set, we cannot see another route

And out we sell our precious days, as entrenched, the system stays

But at least we’re getting paid, as we endure this masquerade

And as we die a little death and feel our will begin to fade

We know at least there are new toys on which to spend the cash we saved 

I WEAR THE PLASTIC SMILE AND I

PERFORM SO EASILY AND I

PRETEND NORMALITY AND I

CHOKE DOWN CONFORMITY AND I

FEIGN THIS IS SANITY AND I

INDULGE DEPRAVITY AND I

STUNT MY CAPACITY AND I

PLAY ALONG WITH YOUR WORLD

LYRIC: Too Long; Didn’t Read

Remember when the internet would save us all?

Information freely shared – no obstacle?

Do you remember ugly sites, with big ideas?

The greatest research resource invented in years?

When did this tool to learn become lobotomized?

How did we let it make us so infantilized?

A world of knowledge lying at our fingertips

But mainly used for dancing cats and nipple slips

Too long; didn’t read

A 21stCentury creed

Retweet, like, share

But there’s no substance anywhere

Soundbite platitude

Count how many times it’s been viewed

Clickbait, monetize

Only the vacuous will survive

The answers to our greatest woes could be online

Hidden in plain sight, ignored cuz we don’t have time

Update a status, tell the world the food I eat

But never read what won’t fit in a single tweet

Too long; didn’t read

A 21stCentury creed

Retweet, like, share

But there’s no substance anywhere

Soundbite platitude

Count how many times it’s been viewed

Clickbait, monetize

Only the vacuous will survive

I am connected every minute, every day

Search engines beckoning to guide my way

Knowledge is power but I’m feeling so weak

I sleep much better when the world is kept oblique 

Too long; didn’t read

A 21stCentury creed

Retweet, like, share

But there’s no substance anywhere

Soundbite platitude

Count how many times it’s been viewed

Clickbait, monetize

Only the vacuous will survive

LYRIC: What Happened?

A week in this world’s enough to make all hope go out the door

Racist murders, mass destruction, ignorance and war

Pseudo-democracy that benefits only the elites

While the masses have no voice with which they can speak

Demonstrations ignored, protests dismissed

Popular uprising is just met with fists

Propaganda machines manufacture consent

To make us all tools of a government

Who are tools to corporate CEOs and their cash

Please take this away and give none of it back

What happened?  Reality is so the opposite of how it’s supposed to be

What happened?  Why is no one looking out for each other anymore?

What happened?  Everything thing has been bought or sold, our needs left in the cold

What happened?  What happened to the world?

All of our leisure and pleasure is not what we need

False wants implanted creating consumer greed

No concern for whether we will benefit

Only motivated by their increased profit

The tiny privileged minority

Exploiting a bought-off majority

Clouded so much by PR that we no longer see

What is it we actually need.

What happened?  Why can we not buy food that’s not been chemically abused?

What happened?  Why are there so few people rich and so many very poor?

What happened?  Why do we not see that we are clearly not free?

What happened?  What happened to the world?

What happened to community?  Everyone out for each other’s needs?

Now we’re just out for our wealth.  Don’t give a damn about public health.

All we buy leads to our death.  No-one’s accountable for this mess.

Free trade counts, our lives do not – a public exploited to keep them on top

It’s gotta stop!

This is not the world I want to live in

Violence rules and is fed by this system

I won’t be a puppet for a puppeteer that kills me

I no longer want to be a spectator in my own democracy!

What happened?  Why are we not a part in the running of our lives?

What happened?  Why is life so unlike the life I was promised as a child?

What happened?  Why are we so desensitized to the loss of lives?

What happened?  What happened to the world?

LYRIC: Acceptable

There's crazy Joe he's talking to himself again, 

Diagnosed schitzo, everybody laughs at him 

Call him names, take the piss, label him a lunatic 

As he talks to his imaginary friend called Eric

There's Reverand John he's praying to himself again 

Communities' most trusted, everybody's friends with him 

They think he's great, a role model, nothing about him is odd 

Cuz the imaginary friend he talks to has the name of GOD 

Why is it OK to talk to yourself if your "talking to God" But if you're not talking to God, you're judged insane and labelled odd? 

Gibberish!  The title of a hobo's raves and rants 

The same affliction's "talking in tongues" when it happens to a Christian 

When will these silly double standards ever end? 

Never -  Cuz God is the socially acceptable imaginary friend. 

God's the socially acceptable imaginary friend

Believe in him or be locked away 

If you hear God talking when you pray 

You're as crazy as the next guy and should be locked away 

Eric and God: there's no proof of either one 

So go free all mental patients or go lock up all the Christians 

God's the socially acceptable imaginary friend

Believe in him or be locked away/ Believe in him or be sent to hell 

LYRIC: Too Lazy To Live

Drinking your life away 

You down a six pack everyday 

It's not enough that you're destroying yourself

Throw your litter on the ground, polluting the planet for everyone else 

Lazy fucks are always driving cars 

Nowadays a half-mile walk is far too far 

Smog, cancer, asthma, other vicious treats 

Planet's being ruined just to save your aching feet 

People only care about themselves 

Not concerned with anyone else 

Too concerned with their own lives 

To care if mankind survives 

Time is running out 

Litter cuz we can't be bothered to put things away 

Drive instead of walk to save a second in your day 

Can't be arsed to dispose of it properly so your waste goes in the sea 

I say that we're killing ourselves and I'm greeted with apathy 

AIDS and cancer are dangerous 

But our most fatal disease is our laziness 

More contagious than a cold 

When smog stops you breathing don't complain-you have been told! 

People care too much about themselves 

Not concerned with anyone else 

Greedy for convenience and free time 

Mankind does not deserve to survive 

Laziness will be your death 

Selfishness will be your death 

The planet's time is almost up 

Just cuz no one gives a fuck 

Ice caps melting and flooding the ground 

Cancer causing smogs are all around 

Earth won't die now give it a few more years 

You don't care you won't be here 

I hope reincarnation does exist 

So you come back and die on the land on which you pissed! 

I'll be laughing when your children die 

We'll be laughing when your children die! 

LYRIC: Junk Food News

Have you heard the news?

Not the stuff about the wars or politics

But the celebrity views

A TV celeb thinks this about their latest flick

And have you seen the shocking pictures?

Not of starving children in Iraq

But of those ghastly trousers

The ones that made some pop-star look fat

Forget about that bill

The one that takes more freedoms away from us

Cuz they've invented a pill

To take your head away from all that fuss

It must be very good, all the big-shot actors are using it

It's here in the papers!  The exciting world of Hollywood politics!

It's junk-food news, it takes away the attention

Government is boring

They can do what they like with our taxes

My favourite star has got a new haircut!

We've got nuclear bombs

Ours are pointing at countries and others are pointing back

But the Oscars were fun

And war brings us down so let's just laugh!

We'll get a four minute warning, those watching the news won't know what it's about

Everyone'll die, ignorant of why

But aware of the lates films to come out

It's junk-food news, it takes away the attention

Government is boring

They can do what they like with our taxes

My favourite star has got a new haircut!

Yes my favourite star has got a new haircut

And that actress I like she is pregnant

And sure I might die ignorant

But at least I knew who was sleeping with who!

LYRIC: There Must Be More Than This To Life

I'm astounded at your bitterness

Your apathy and unwillingness

To build a better place for us

And just accept this shit

The oppression's indisputable

It is unacceptable

So why are you so disagreeable

To alternatives to this?

Don't be fooled cuz you're comfortable

Aim for the impossible

To your boss you're just a pain in the ass

You lose your life to claim your wage

You lose more time everyday

Why do you put up with this crap?

There must be more than this to life?

Brainwashed so you cannot fight

And as they pull the budget tight

It's unfair but you don't speak out

Capitalist ideology

In the interests of them-not you and me

We must fight against THEM don't you see?

Don't be docile, SHOUT!

It's not in their interests to be nice

They care for money not people's lives

And it's the apathy that let this grow-you know

You may think utopias can't exist

But anything must be better than this

This exploitative system must go!

COMFORTABLE MIDDLE CLASSES

GET UP OFF YOUR BOUGHT OUT ASSES

There must be more than this to life!

LYRIC: Spin-Cycle on Greenwash

Some people really believe all the things they see on TV, 

All the things they read in the news 

No independent points of view 

McDonalds is nutritious 

Nestle chocolate is delicious 

Shell and BP: Eco-friendly 

We live in a democracy 

So much fiction - PR vision 

To find the truth is quite a mission 

All the facades, all the lies 

They want cash, who cares who dies! 

Spin-cycle on Green-wash 

The façade they give you is not a real world-view 

Reality has been lost 

PR distortion 

Morality abortion 

First we let them take the media 

Take the ways and means to feed ya 

Take the power, take the cash 

Now we have to get it back 

Soon they'll kill us if we let them 

They want profit, we want freedom 

They'll lie to us to protect themselves 

They want money and fuck our health! 

GM foods, consumer craze 

Fuck the dangers if it pays 

Well fuck them I've had enough 

These capitalist liars can get fucked! 

Spin-cycle on Green-wash 

The façade they give you is not a real world-view 

Reality has been lost 

PR distortion 

Morality abortion 

We don't want to be dying for you 

You try to hide but your lies we see through 

Inhuman monsters who only love cash 

Well we're making sure that these days are your last 

Spin-cycle on Green-wash 

The façade they give you is not a real world-view 

Reality has been lost 

PR distortion 

Morality abortion 

LYRIC: Welcome to England (TM)

You think you live in a free nation? 

Well all I see is a corporation 

The government's our bosses and we are their slaves 

Poor health and safety and no minimum wage 

The day that we're born, we punch in the clock 

Only when dead do we finally sign off 

In between we slave away 

Life disallowed for those without pay 

Welcome to England, registered trademark

An affiliate of The West.Inc 

Your life is ours, we've supplied you a number… 

Shut up! Obey! You're our commodity! We'll use you until you die! 

If free, why must we earn our living? 

Life's a right that they are not giving! 

What do you work for? For joy or for cash? 

How much do you give how much do you get back? 

Fulfillment lacking there's no time for you 

Insignificant parts, just a human screw 

Keep you in line with fear and obey 

So they can use you for another day! 

Welcome to England, registered trademark

An affiliate of The West.Inc 

Your life is ours, we've supplied you a number… 

Shut up! Obey! You're our commodity! We'll use you until you die! 

Piss off, fuck you, I'm not your commodity, I'll resist and reclaim my life! 

LYRIC: This Is What Democracy Looks Like

Streets filled with conspiracy 

The Masses Screaming To Be Free 

Demonstrators everywhere 

The rich are having quite a scare 

Fighting against corruption and a murderous regime 

The masses are uprising and are taking to the streets 

Protest's a right supposedly in this democracy 

So why the fuck is everywhere surrounded by police? 

Banners and singing against tear-gas, clubs and guns 

Who is really protecting the peace? 

This is what democracy looks like 

Is this what democracy looks like? 

Everyday people get fucked 

By this system so corrupt 

Corporate, capitalist sacks of shit 

Screw us over for more profit 

But now we're getting restless and we're beating on our drums 

A battle cry for freedom in our mass demonstrations 

Our anger turned to magic and some more direct action 

A democratic right to voice our dissatisfaction 

We're growing stronger not going away 

In fear they bring in their armies! 

This is what democracy looks like 

Is this what democracy looks like? 

Cuz to me it just looks like Marshall law! 

Undercover cops sparking up violence 

Military nerve gasses to stop our dissent 

Arrested for political opinions 

As rubber bullets fly at our painted faces 

The class war illustrated 

As the cops protect the ruling class 

This is your fucking democracy 

Aren't you proud of what you let pass? 

Freedom of speech beaten away 

We speak our minds, their batons raise! 

The confrontation evidence they've something to protect 

Throw all you can at us cuz we will never rest! 

We will fight until we win 

Your mind manipulation is fading fast! 

This ain't what democracy looks like! 

This ain't what democracy looks like! 

Because it's not a democracy when you're beaten up for speaking out 

This ain't a democracy-oh no! 

LYRIC: President Grab-a-Pussy

Make America Great Again by making Americans hate again

President Grab-a-pussy
President build-a-wall
President golden showers
Awaiting Putin’s call
President carnage
President Fake News
President intolerant
Of anyone else’s views
President little hands
President insecure
President winning
Like we’ve never won before
President no tax
President billionaire
President who thinks a blind trust
Can be a family affair
President Islamophobe
President election hack
President taking all our progress
And turning all that progress back
President American carnage
President America first!
President 45
who made 43 no longer the worst
President Apprentice
President You’re fired
President who so many racist, sexist, assholes you have inspired

I thought I’d have something clever to say
After Donald Trump’s inauguration day
The crowning of a President endorsed by the KKK
In the same week we celebrated the birth of MLK?
But what words are left that can make any of this OK?
And at the same time acknowledge that this isn’t going away?
That orange Hitler was the victor and that he’s here to stay?
That our deepest ideals are about to be betrayed?
And so far from what is decent we have very clearly strayed?
Besides, how many more times do his failings have to be displayed?
The sheer number of disqualifying factors could form a fucking parade!
Yet that didn’t seem to matter on last year’s election day
And it is too late now even if they did somehow persuade
So we are forced to pull the covers on this rotten bed we made
And slumber four years with one eye open the fractured sleep of the afraid

President Twitter troll
President repeal
President the art of making a fucking deal
President thin-skinned
President litigious
President who lies so much that his bullshit is prodigious
President unethical
President regrettable
President whose war crimes soon won’t be hypothetical
President birther
President body-shamer
President class of ‘13 WWE hall of famer
President insulting
President inflamer
President who put to rest the claim they’re all the samer
President real estate
President corrupt
President who like his businesses will leave us all bankrupt
President climate denier
President nuclear slaughter
President who creepily seems to want to fuck his own daughter

Whenever I picked up my pen today
Or opened my mouth up to vent today
The words died on my tongue or the page today
Just “President Trump” then I’d start to fade
That sentence alone and the joke was made
Cutting deeper than any satirical blade
Four syllables that feel like a hand grenade
Like a burning hot day when you can’t find shade
You can’t even laugh you feel so dismayed
Depression so heavy it can’t be weighed
A bill that’s so large it cannot be paid
So this is the best I could serenade
These lemons not even Beyonce could turn into lemonade:

Whatever your politics
Whoever you are
Let’s agree Reality TV has now gone too far

LYRIC: The Lofty Oracles

My old friend insomnia’s here
But just once this last political year
I want to sleep election night without fear
My eyes stinging with tears
Wondering when the dust clears
What it is I will hear?
Is it sobbing or cheers?
And whose cheers and whose tears?
Will I wake up amazed that the old order’s been razed
Our society finally awoke from its daze?
Or with the sucker punch of recognizing
My fellow citizens have been lionizing
The lies
And swallowing bullshit down whole when they go to the poll?

Believing budget-butchers slash with compassion rather than to let the business cash-in
Assuming competence with the economy comes at the cost of our humanity
Hoodwinked by media-trained faux passion
Following spin-doctored narratives the way the shallow follow fashion
Ignoring the catastrophic situation of our growing homeless population
A social welfare devastation – you see them sleeping rough around the station
And as the trains get more expensive – don’t even think about what your rent is
Or how our jobs get less secure as our bosses demand more and more
And how our wages aren’t enough to buy the never-ending stuff
We need to buy to stay alive – our cost of living a living suicide
With our healthcare no longer healthy, it’s funding cut by the super-wealthy,
And a diminishing education due to austerity’s financial obliteration

But we’re so quick to cite futility,
Invent inherent inability,
In the name of false stability
We choose decline with such rapidity

And I find it so regrettable
The agenda’s so easily settable
By those desperate to make inevitable
The idea utopia isn’t gettable

But there’s no evidence detectable
Revolution ain’t selectable
Even though THE LOFTY ORACLES
May have denounced it unelectable

And I must say I’m curious
Why it is we’re aren’t all furious
And how it is so many seem contented
With unnecessary inequality which could so easily have been prevented
Instead becoming cemented like no alternatives have been invented
Which could’ve been implemented to untorment the now tormented
But each solution that’s presented is always swiftly circumvented
By the ones who all assented to the policies I’ve documented
We’re abandoned and unrepresented; a selfish greed unprecedented
But we just go about our day like this destruction is okay
We shrug our shoulders, shake our head
Avert our eyes from all the dead
Normalize what should be scandals, legitimize economic vandals,
As systematically they dismantle rights which underfoot they trample
And we pretend the mood is not so sombre; that’s the propaganda we all conjure
As the wrongs keep getting wronger
The waiting lists keep getting longer,
The vulnerable forsaken, fundamental rights keep getting taken, yet so many refuse to waken to the truth of our situation!
All this corruption, all this bribery
My outrage could fill a fucking library
But while we should be out marching down on the streets
Instead pearls of non-wisdom are set to repeat
How this is “the real world”, how life “has” to be
Manufactured demands treated inerrantly
“Educated” opinions that hide strategy
Promoted and parroted adherently
Clung to despite the incoherency

All hope discarded in this cowed paradigm
Of the self-harming Groundhog Day we vote for each time

And there’s no evidence detectable
Revolution ain’t selectable
Even though THE LOFTY ORACLES
May have denounced it unelectable

LYRIC: The Ballot Was a Bomb

It’s like we booby-trapped the future

An open wound bleeding out and there ain’t no hope of suture

I wish I could wish a happy new year

But I’m watching wheels rolling forward to a catastrophic fear

Dormant malice now awake

I barely recognise a world in which this wasn’t a mistake

But the mistake that I won’t make

Is pretending everything we hold dear isn’t now at stake

Before a storm there may be calm

But if you think that means it’s over be prepared to be alarmed

Because the ballot was a bomb

THE BALLOT WAS A BOMB

June 24, November 9

Grief-stricken, the saner citizens came to terms with our decline

I hold passports in both places

A dual-citizen duelling with the thought of all those racists

Walls and borders instead of embraces

So much hate in so many faces

But the sun came up and life went on

And you could almost make believe the worst was never gonna come

Hoping that it can’t happen here

But it always does and always has on this the history is clear

THE BALLOT WAS A BOMB

The ballot was a bomb

X in the box lit the fuse and some forget the fuse is long

It reminds me of oh-nine

All that false hope after the world crashed and you thought you had survived

But unravelling takes time

You’re dangling from a rope; don’t see the strands start to untwine

Because that poison acted slow

The Great Recession already got you but you didn’t even know

Cut by cut they chopped us down

You didn’t notice you were falling till your body hit the ground

So yeah – he’s not even President yet

But I get no comfort from the tweets of the President elect

Or the big business bigots he has chosen to select

Or the petty little grudges he seems unable to forget

And our Brexit may lay in a Schrodinger state

Both in Europe and out until the trigger date

But a stay of execution merely postpones our fate

And can’t erase the result of our referendum of hate

2016 fucked the future – our votes flipped the switch

Is it any wonder those celebrities chose to die and jump the ship?

It hasn’t happened yet, but by the pricking of my thumbs

The ballot was a bomb and something wicked this way comes

THE BALLOT WAS A BOMB