Zombie—The Cranberries
#365Songs: May 27th
On May 3rd, 1921, Ireland split itself in two. The Northern Irish Protestants maintained loyalty to the United Kingdom while the Catholic-leaning Republic of Ireland pursued independence. A country split in two, at odds with itself. In the late 1960s, tensions boiled over again in a 30-year conflict referred to as The Troubles: the Loyalists versus the Unionists.
Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken
I’ve long been fascinated with Irish history, its folklore and poetry, its Celtic magic, the songs and fables passed through time. It’s impossible to spend time wandering Ireland without falling deeply in love with the place and the people who call it home. I’ve been thinking a lot about internal conflicts lately, the battles that tear us apart and leave behind no victors.
But you see it’s not me
It’s not my family
In your head, in your head
They are fighting
With their tanks and their bombs
And their bombs and their guns
In your head, in your head
They are cryin’
Today is Memorial Day, a time when we remember those who fought and died in wars. While I’d love to be the sort of idealist who believes war is always avoidable, I know better. Sometimes survival is at stake, when one side is clearly right and the other clearly wrong. But in almost every example, those declaring war aren’t the ones fighting them: the men (and it’s always men) in the high castles sending other parent’s children into death trenches. Every President in my lifetime has waged war against someone, but only one (Biden) has had a kid who served (Iraq). Last I counted, Trump has five children old enough to serve. The only lines they form are powdered white, cut with privilege, and snorted through Daddy’s $100 bill.
But some wars are unofficial, some battles don’t have names. In recent years, we’ve seen the rise of our own versions of the Loyalists and Unionists: the Proud Boys versus Antifa, MAGA versus Sane People, the Anti-Woke versus the Woke (even though very few of the former could adequately define the term they throw around with such rage). For every Black Lives Matter protest, there is a white supremacist on the other side; for every Woman’s March attendee, there is a “Christian Conservative” evangelizing against progress. The hate is here to stay, fueled by a Fascist, promoted by his spineless fellow Republicans, and normalized by a media too afraid to appear biased.
For over 160 years, America has pretended to be a United States, even as the two factions have established very little common ground and, in recent years, has even found success in repealing decades-old progress.
In your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie, hey, hey
What’s in your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie, hey, hey, hey, oh
Another mother’s breakin’
Heart is taking over
When the violence causes silence
We must be mistaken
On January 6th, 2021, one party assaulted the point of no return, fueled by years of “alternative facts” and doubt-planting in the sanctity of our election institution. At this point, it doesn’t matter who wins on November 5th. Capitalist Democracy has been rigged for generations, a system built for a few at the expense of the rest of us, but at least there was a foundation of truth between us. Now that it’s gone, there’s nowhere to go. Half of Americans don’t care that Trump led an insurrectionists, and even the “Blues Lives Matter” Cop crowd hasn’t turned on the man who calls the insurrections “Patriots,” despite attacking and wounding over 140 Capitol Police. Those on the front lines never win, even when they’re on the winning side.
It’s the same old theme
Since nineteen-sixteen
In your head, in your head
They’re still fightin’
With their tanks and their bombs
And their bombs and their guns
In your head, in your head
They are dyin’
For decades, the US Government has churned and burned veterans. Even as the Patriot party celebrates Vets better than anyone, they also aggressively demonize the unhoused and mentally ill more than anyone— without acknowledging how many are also Veterans. While I admire and respect those who serve our country, I struggle to understand why anyone still chooses to do so given how little we respect their lives, sacrifices, and post-War rentry into society.
The pessimist in me believes there’s no path forward in this country, that the two sides have never been further away from common ground. And now, without so much as a foundation of fact, nothing binds us but for the occasional and agitating “USA USA USA” chant at a nationalistic sporting event. Like Ireland, we’re a country that perhaps never should’ve been unified at all. How can two sides with completely different values ever unite? One side believes in going back to the way things used to be, a religious society in which men are men and women are inferior, a world of unequal rights and normative rules that leave well over half the population on the outside; the other side believes in progress, equality, and space for the Other to prosper too. But as long as both sides blindly accept unfettered Capitalism and aggressive war-mongering as the only way forward, we’ll keep losing over and over again until there’s nothing left but a smoldering ungovernable country.
Everything is life or death on the front lines, a fact Irish band The Cranberries proclaimed with perfect angst on 1994’s Zombie. You’re always one moment away from the end of the world. As we inch ever nearer to an un-winnable election, we’re that much closer to our next Civil War. The only winners are the ones who hide away protected in bunkers far from the consequences of their own failures.
In your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie, hey, hey
What’s in your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie, hey, hey, hey
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Hey, oh, ya, ya-a
~
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