the depression
after the concession
that human beings really are that dumb
that news that hits me and i just go numb
that rome has anointed a caesar and bows in awe
that the son of an asshole rises like the sun god Ra
offering poor whites the impression of being rich
giving people like us a million new reasons to bitch
stoking the embers of a revolutionary fire
welcome, all of us, to the declining american empire
we had a good fifty year run
did some nice things when all's said and done
made the same mistakes as the romans, the spanish, the british
overextended more than our military instead of just holing up like the
Finnish
who make nokia cell phones all day in the freezing dark
we could have been like them, except with Yosemite Park
the grand canyon, bryce, the pacific ocean, the great plains
this beautiful country where optimism eternally rains
today we are sobered with a big dose of the end of prosperity
maybe there will be a riotous revolution that will create a solidarity
the poor side by side with the rich in arms against injustice and
oppression
but i doubt it
judging by the concession
nagging with depression
i doubt it all except the fear factor of xenophobia
jews, communists, meet the arabs and gays
fear your neighbor and take notes and what he says
because we announced to the world that we will be governed by fear today
i can't understand it any other way
that a man so rich and dumb
could get the votes of so many poor and dumb
leads the cynic in me to believe that it is dumbness that unites us
this great experiment in democracy
crumbling in a fallacy:
that we ever really cared about our slave minorities
that we ever really had any less than greedy priorities
so rob the oil and record the arabs- take anything 'other' and demonize it.
meet the new american nation- we're fat, dumb and we supersize it
and we'll be fucking eating whatever we want -so please try not to bite us
even if you and i didn't even fucking invite us.

Copyright © 2004 by Gabriel Bellman -- Used with permission