2+2=5 — Radiohead
#365Songs: January 6th
As a young Gen X’er, I came of age during the least chaotic period in American history. Post World, Korean, and Vietnam Wars, when the Baby Boomers who screamed free love and fuck the Government accepted Reagan’s “greed is good” gaslight grift and joined the Capitalist Army against common sense. I was tucked into my small suburban safe haven, lower-Middle Class but not at risk for true struggle. The Cold War hovered above my childhood, but I was too young and too sheltered to know that we could all die at any point. Yes, the Day After made-for-tv film scared the shit out of my innocent little ass, but that was fiction. It couldn’t happen to me. Not here, not now, not ever.
Some events penetrated the bubble. The Challenger explosion, a freak Cleveland-area earthquake, a murderer on the loose who threw us into lockdown for a day.
Beyond that, life was idyllic. Predictable. Governed by a system we could trust.
In recent years, I’ve developed a bit of an obsession for alternative history. Change one small detail, and what happens. Imagine if the Florida Supreme Court didn’t hand the election to Bush. Imagine if the government listened to warnings and prevented 9/11. Imagine if we didn’t all fall victim to the “USA USA USA” faux patriotism that led to the lie about Iraq, Hussain, weapons of mass destruction. Imagine a world in which America is a weapon of mass peace rather than destruction.
Are you such a dreamer
To put the world to rights?
I’ll stay home forever
Where two and two always makes up five
I’ll lay down the tracks
Sandbag and hide
Imagine if Obama said “grab’em by the pussy,” if Obama said “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voter,” if Obama rallied his armies against Democracy by challenging the integrity of the election system. Correction would’ve occurred immediately. 2+2 would’ve still equaled 4.
January has April’s showers
And two and two always makes up five
It’s the devil’s way now
There is no way out
You can scream and you can shout
It is too late now
Because you have not been
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Imagine if we didn’t fall into the Baby Boomer trap, if we didn’t let the Capitalist Army distract us so easily. Imagine if we could still talk to each other, in person, over breakfast coffee dinner, and find common ground.
You have not been paying attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
In 2003, Radiohead released their Bush / Blair protest album. Never shy about politics, there’s always been a certain prescience to their songwriting. Mainstreaming electronic instrumentation and song reconstruction, challenging the system itself. They questioned the coldness of modern technology on OK Computer & Kid A, out of control war-mongering governments on Hail to the Thief, and even the way we buy albums with In Rainbows.
You have not been paying attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Imagine a world without artists like Radiohead and Sinead O’Connor who protest through music, a world without artists like Jason Molina, Springsteen, Ani Difranco, Fiona Apple, the Indigo Girls, Boots Riley, Phil Ochs, James Baldwin, Orwell, and thousands of others who wake us up and introduce to the experience of the Other, to places we don’t understand, to ways of life that aren’t our own.
You have not been paying attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention oohh
Imagine a world where we learned from history, where we stopped believing that “it can’t happen here,” and “it can’t happen to me.” Imagine a world where we could empathize with the disgruntled blue collar workers of the Midwest without minimizing them, where we could agree to disagree but maintain some foundation of decency and order.
I try to sing along
But the music’s all wrong
’Cause I’m not
’Cause I’m not
I swat ’em like flies
But like flies the buggers
Keep coming back
Sadly, that is no longer our world. This is not that place. It’s been three years since Trump broke America by challenging the once unchallengeable institution, and yet here we are months away from his reelection. A potentially-91-time convicted felon insurrectionist with a history of sexual assault who has said clearly he has dictator dreams, who has proclaimed revenge against his enemies is on the verge of taking power once again. And to be clear, if you’re still reading this post you’re also the enemy and you’re not safe, either.
And not
But I’m not
All hail to the thief
All hail to the thief
But I’m not
But I’m not
But I’m not
But I’m not
Don’t question my authority or put me in a box
’Cause I’m not
’Cause I’m not
Oh go and tell the king
That the sky is falling in
But it’s not
But it’s not
But it’s not
Maybe not
Maybe not
