This is a song arising from my reflection on the terror being inflicted upon the world by the leaders of Russia, USA, Israel, and Iran, to name just a few.
Here we are, trying to live our lives, and these old, angry men have no qualms pushing more young lives through the meat grinder of war, over what?
Their stories change every minute. Three of them are possibly using war as delaying tactics to keep them out of prison, while the other heads up a country that has been a poisonous sanctuary for bitter evil and terror for years (against the wishes of much of the population, from what I understand).
The core premise of this song is that we should be past this by now. Instead, greed and fear are hauled out as justifications to kill and destroy. Meanwhile, the creative work, curiosity, communities, and relationships all budding down here on the ground, are turned upside down as economies are hit and fractured.
We need these old men to vanish, sooner rather than later, so that people who have many years still to live (that is, with skin in the game) are in control and hopefuly more mindful of the consequences of their violent actions.
One can hope, at least.
I also draw on some famous sayings (Carl Sagan’s Tiny Blue Dot, and the Franciscan urging to live simply so others may simply live) to underline how humankind has had this wisdom for a long time. However, these angry men ignore it, in part, because our insatiable hunger for resources (many of which we just waste through excess and laziness) gives them the cover of justification to make their countries great again, so to speak, and to hell with everybody else who shares this rock.
Another Bloody Year Lyrics
[Verse 1]
We are blowing ourselves to pieces
Breaking things up again
And little people pay the prices
On behalf of those angry men
[Verse 2]
These old showmen shout their speeches
Sending the young to war
They’d never fight them on the beaches
They stay safe behind locked doors
[Chorus]
What the hell is going on?
I shouldn’t need to write this song
But these fools fight for greed and fear
They bruise us all, and risk it all
For what?
Another bloody year
[Verse 3]
Now there are kids learning how to swim
Some learning how to write
But these cowards and their whims
Means they’ll soon be taught to fight
[Verse 4]
Are the boxes where we house our lives
Worth all the ones who’ll die
As we jostle in our four wheel drives
Will we take time to wonder why
[Chorus]
What the hell is going on?
I shouldn’t need to write this song
But these fools fight for greed and fear
They bruise us all, and risk it all
For what?
Another bloody year
[Bridge]
What is it all for?
Do we think about life?
Or do we just reach for more?
Do we claim it’s our right?
Look at us from space
We are a pale blue dot
But in two hundred years
We’ll join those time forgot
[Verse 5]
There is nothing that is worth all this
These evil lords of death
So how many more of us must fall
Before they draw their final breath?
[Verse 6]
There are many more of us than them
With lessons we could give
That all of us should live more simply
So that others might simply live
[Chorus]
What the hell is going on?
I shouldn’t need to write this song
But these fools fight for greed and fear
They bruise us all, and risk it all
For what?
Another bloody year