This track from the Modern Man album by the filthy politicians echoes much of the wisdom expressed in the recently featured video Earth: Land Is Life. The song argues that our modern notions of “progress” have led us far off track from relationships with the human and non-human animals around us. It ends in a call to fight on the side of life and resist civilization and its destruction. Truly music for a culture of resistance.
Listen to this track and read the lyrics below, and hear more songs at the filthy politicians on bandcamp and at the filthy politicians on soundcloud.
we think we’re so smart it’s funny
not much wisdom but damn we got money
we’re just animals like everybody else
but we’ve learned to like to destroy ourselves
so if i could i would trade it all
fuck science let the chips fall
where they may – control is an illusion
toaster ovens and nuclear fusion
don’t get us anywhere but further away
from livin life in a natural way
we’re relatively new to the forest
gotta learn from the ones here before us
we’re the younger brother of all the other species
but we quit listenin and now it’s easy
to see how far off the track we are
gotta get back there’s a map in the stars
so we’ll start by tearin down the street lights
let bright days turn into bright nights
take old wrongs make new rights
as we dance on the grave of the ways of our old life
cuz right now we take and we don’t give back
if you want to survive then you can’t do that
you can’t pollute, poison an plunder
cuz if you bring lightning you’re gonna get thunder
and right now we’re flailing, about to go under
alarms are wailing and it makes you wonder
how we don’t hear it?
maybe it’s cuz now it’s too loud
and the waves are crashing down all around
so we can’t decipher the sounds anymore
i don’t think we’re smart
because we found new ways now to tear the earth apart
it’s gettin bigger but it ain’t gettin better
the writing’s on the wall in bright red letters
big dump trucks, sky scrapers
chemical factories, all earth rapers
agriculture means fightin nature
imposin our will like a legislature
we’ve wiped out the ones who were content
to live with the earth the way that we were meant to
so we gotta look back if we wanna learn new
ways to relate to the earth that we’ve burned through
it’s time for restoration
of the earth and our human relations
cuz we ain’t happy here in hierarchy
we’re better as equals i ain’t lyin b
but we’ve been chasin a ghost
ignoring the things that we need the most
like clean air, water, and community
civilization has enjoyed immunity
while all these kings and queens
get off scott free as we eat the memes
that you better not resist this just go along
they got armies and guns they’re too strong
but fuck that i’m learning
can’t sit back, won’t be a good german
and watch this holocaust any longer
choose life and we’ll all be stronger
cuz right now we’re slaves diggin our own graves
the earth we need’s the earth we pave
so we gotta wake up, wake up, wake up
then we gotta take up, take up, take up
the war of our ancestors and end it
so we can save our descendants