Lyrics by Indi Riverflow

I saw most of the minds of my generation
Sold a cheap plastic corporate vision
Between rounds of life imitation
As they prayed to the god of television

America is huddled and shivering tonight
And the papers and airwaves are filled with fright
As we rubberneck around to catch the sight
Of tragedy so common it starts to seem trite

Professional puffballs playing up and out the rage
Struck with sudden bouts of humanity on stage
On pitiful puppet strings until the turn of page
Turns darkly to demand blood and that war be waged
That the beast of vengeance be loosed from the cage

Dare we look it clear in the eye?
Dare we admit we always knew why?
Dare we take the rap for the big bad lie
And cop to truth behind that American Dream pie
Baked from the bodies of slaughtered braves
Seasoned with the stolen sweat of slaves
Spoiling under curses streaming from graves
And spilled along an oily path privately paved

Can we resist deflecting the finger of blame
Swallow the humble pie slathered in shame
Evil done by our hand, evil done in our name
It is the evil of our Empire just the same
Justice is not this twisted revenge that is taught
Extracting from scapegoats the cost of getting caught
It is an obligation to own in our deepest of thoughts
That the buck stops here where this bubble was bought

I pledge allegiance to the mixed bag
Of the United States of Experience
Cause a Fascist by any other flag
Stinks to high hell of the same arrogance
And if you want me to subscribe
To that hope and change vibe
I do sincerely hope that change
Is more than the old shit rearranged
Cause all I see is my rights down the shitter
Hunted to extinction by mindless drone planes
Beamed in by our electric baby-sitter
As little America goes dramatically insane
And drowns in a flood of insipid glitter

And when the awful reality touches down
And the death and horror is all around
And the guns have put us on the ground
And we hear for ourselves war’s gruesome sound

Let us not cast about for some demon to hate
Let us not run into the arms of the State
I myself have no more trust to give
To a government that cares not one bit if I live

And if you try to claim this “democracy”
Is other than an elaborate hypocrisy
None are so blind as those refusing to see
How our stolen minds are miles from free
And this exercise in futility
Has driven us to the edge of gullibility

It is not our duty to dwell in our guilt
Over the pain on which our house was built
There are many layers of fossils laying in silt
Accumulating ages of archeology’s quilt
It took millennia to achieve this height
Of hubris where our petty fights
Scan the planet every night
In the game to command the blinking of lights

The darkness comes from the very same source
The madness of advancing freedom by force
It hits with shock it hits with awe
The blowback the poorest prophets foresaw

As we try to comprehend these monstrous mirrors
Manifest destiny of our collective fears
Armed assassin of the vain illusion
That surely there must be some confusion
We’ve paid protection for our picket fences
We’ve paid our dues to our proper pretenses

My hands are bloody, America.
No excuses. No evasion.
I am the child of a pathological invasion.
I did not start this war
But I am part of what they started it for
I have no power to raise the dead
But I’ll be damned if one more death on my head
Will go by without even a word being said
So now, perhaps, that we’re feeling meek
Can we also consider those America killed last week?