Is This the Life We Really Want?

(So, as an example, you're CNN)

(I mean, it's story after story after story, is bad)

(I won, I won)

(And the other thing, chaos, there's zero chaos)

(It-We are running-This is a fine-tuned machine)

The goose has gotten fat

On caviar and fancy bars

On sub-prime loans

And broken homes

Is this the life?

The Holy Grail?

It's not enough that we succeed

We still need others to fail

Fear, fear drives the mills of modern man

Fear keeps us all in line

Fear of all those foreigners

Fear of all their crimes

Is this the life?

We really want

It surely must be so

For this is a democracy and what we all say goes

And every time a student is run over by a tank

And every time a pirate's dog is forced to walk the plank

Every time a Russian bride is advertised for sale

And every time a journalist is left to rot in jail

Every time a young girl's life is casually spent

And every time a nincompoop becomes the president

Every time somebody dies reaching for their keys

And every time that Greenland folds in the fucking sea

It's because

All of us, the blacks and whites

Chicanos, Asians, every type

Of ethnic group, even folks

From Guadalupe, the old, the young

Toothless hags, supermodels

Actors, fags, bleeding hearts

Football stars, men in bows

Washerwomen, tailors, tots

Grannies , grandpas, uncles, aunts

Friends, relations, homeless tramps

Killers, truckers, cleaning ladies, ants

Maybe not ants (Why not ants?)

Well, because it's true that ants don't have enough IQ

To differentiate between

The pain that other people feel

And well, for instance, cutting leaves

Or crawling across window sills

In search of open treacle tins

So like the ants, are we just dumb?

Is that why we won't feel or see?

Or are we just numbed out on reality TV?

So, every time

The curtain falls

Every time the curtain falls on some forgotten life

It is because we all stood by, silent and indifferent