Yes Sir, I Will lyrics

Song information

Artist: Crass
Album: Yes Sir, I Will

Lyrics

The door stands open -
Across lines, invisible hands are held, golden streamers building in the night
Alone, the possibilities are enormous
Step outside and parasites, deprived of their meat, wait to suck on tiring flesh
Unending statistics that fatten leaders, prisoners of their morality
Afraid of death, we can not save ourselves
To breathe is not enough

Yes sir, I will

When you woke this morning you looked so rocky-eyed
Blue and white normally, but strange ringed like that in black
It doesn't get much better, your voice can get just ripped up shouting in vain
Maybe someone hears what you say, but you're still on your own at night
You've got to make such a noise to understand the silence
Screaming like a jackass, ringing ears so you can't hear the silence
Even when it's there. like the wind seen from the window
Seeing it but not being touched by it

*
Words sometimes don't seem to mean much;
Of anyone we've used more that most
Feelings from the heart that have been distorted and mocked
Thrown around in the spectacle, the grand social circus

*
Up against the rows of grey robots who control our lives
The things we have to offer sometimes seem so frail
As they plan destruction and gain respectability
We offer our creativity and are made outcasts

*
We didn't expect to find ourselves playing this part
We were concerned with ideas, not rock and roll
But we can't avoid that arena
It's become a part of us even if we don't understand it

*
In attempts to moderate they ask why we don't write love songs
What is it that we sing then?
Our love of life is total, everything we do is an expression of that
Everything that we write is a love song

*
We look for alternatives
But the enormous power of the media makes it so difficult
To establish foundations. their lies and distortions are so extreme
That everything becomes poisoned and corrupted
We can become media personalities, but it is always on their terms
We're tired of living up to other people's expectations when our own are so much higher
Intelligence seems so easily dismissed when it doesn't conform to mainstream values
Lennon said "they hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool"
He was right. social intelligence merely requires agreement and compromise

*
The boundaries are becoming narrower as the state becomes more paranoid
Under authoritarian rule, conformity becomes the only security
Fear is a powerful weapon against human development
Cowering in our temples of self there's little chance of change;
The state is aware of that. the bomb serves many functions
If fear of the omnipotent god is no more
The nuclear father will govern with his shepherd's crook
Drawing his flock closer to the valley of the shadow of death

*
Those of us who stand out against the status quo
Do so against all odds
We cling so closely together
Because we have little other than ourselves
Critics say that it's just punk rock or that we're just naive anarchists
They hope to discredit us with their labels and definitions
Throughout history societies have condemned those who are later celebrated as heroes
In so many bourgeois homes van gogh's sunflowers radiate from the walls
Yet he lived in utter misery, condemned by those very same people
Why is it that the kind and gentle are subjected to violence and riducule?
How is it that the small and mealy-minded have gained so much power?
What perversion has taken place that we are governed by fools?

*
We've had problems from self-appointed gods from bishops to mps
They've tried to ban our records saying that we're a threat to decent society
Fuck them. I hope we are
What kind of depraved idiot thinks they can silence others by denying them their voice?
For fucks sake, who are these lobotomists?
As if walls only had one side
Whispered intimacies might not get through
But cries of anguish know no barriers
But how long do we shout for?
Denied the airwaves, we trust in the wind to carry what we say
But sometimes we've found ourselves shouting into the wind
When we should have been confiding in each other
It seems so absurd that we are denied the chance of ever being truly free
The terrible inequalities of the peoples of this earth
Make freedom at best a dream, at worst an insulting privilege
What space is there for self-expression and personal development
When over half the world's population is starving?
There are so many things that might have been done
But rooted on this spot in the desire to find solution
There's little to see and feel but the sighing and dying of our world
But for suffering we might have been a part of it rather than apart from it

*
Making the compromises
Brave fronts, deceitful disguises. what did you know? what did you care?
What did you know? what did you care?
Turning a blind eye to the lies just to keep it all together
But sometimes when I'm alone like this I wonder whether it's worth it

Smiling and socialising
Endless philosophising. what did you know? what did you care?
What did you know? what did you care?
Surface agreements, statements of fact, trying to prove we can do it
But sometimes when I'm alone like this I wonder just who can see through it

Bargains and sacrifices
Cheap tricks, cheaper devices. what did you know? what did you care?
What did you know? what did you care?
Holding the vision, but losing our sight, endlessly searching solution
But sometimes when I'm alone like this I wonder how much it's just institution

What did you know? what did you care?
What did you know? what did you care?
What did you know? what did you care?
What did you know? what did you care?
Anarchy's become another word for 'got 10p to spare?' what did you know? what did you care?
Another way of saying 'I'm o.k., sod you out there'. what did you know? what did you care?
Another token tantrum to cover up the fear. what did you know? what did you care?
Another institution, another cross to bear. what did you know? what did you care?
Etc. etc

*
Anything and everything can be so easily institutionalised
A poor parody of itself. itself contained by itself
There's no point in just mouthing the words
The token tantrums just aren't enough
Nor is speed and weed and the positive creed
Exclusive clubs where the various tribes congratulate each other for doing fuck all
Will achieve nothing but the strengthening of the status quo
Punk has spawned another rock and roll elite
Cheap rotten vicious imitations thinking they'll change their world
With dyed hair and predictable gestures. nouveau wankers
There's a thousand empty stages waiting for their empty performances
A thousand empty faces waiting for their empty stances
How many times must we hear rehashed versions of feeding of the 5000
By jerks whose only fuck off to the system has been one off the wrist?
It's the feeding of the 5 knuckle shuffle

*
If there was no government, wouldn't there be chaos
Everybody running round, setting petrol bombs off?
And if there was no police force, tell me what you'd do
If thirty thousand rioters came running after you?
And who would clean the sewers? who'd mend my television?
Wouldn't people lay about without some supervision?
Who'd drive the fire engines? who'd fix my video?
If there were no prisons, well, where would robbers go?

And what if I told you to fxxk off?

What if there's no army to stop a big invasion?
Who'd clean the bogs and sweep the floors? we'd have all immigration
Who'd pull the pint at the local pub? where'd I get my fags?
Who'd empty out my dustbins? would I still get plastic bags?
If there were no hospitals, and no doctors too
If I'd broken both my legs, where would I run to?
If there's no medication, if there were no nurses
Wouldn't people die a lot? and who would drive the hearses?

And what if I told you to fxxk off?

If there were no butchers shops, what would people eat?
You'd have everybody starving if they didn't get their meat
If there was no water, what would people drink?
Who'd flush away the you-know-what? but of course mine never stink
What about the children? who'd teach them in the schools?
Who'd make the beggers keep in line? learn them all the rules?
Who's tell us whitewash windows? when to take down doors?
Tell us make a flask of tea and survive the holocaust?

*
The rock and roll swindler says it's o.k. to plunder
So the pirates set sail to rape any ethnic culture they can plug a mike to
The imperialists rub their hands in glee
As the slave-boy hunts out butt-ends in the garbage cans
Is it any wonder there was such sickening celebration over the task force
When so called radicals work hand in hand with the ruling elite?
Yesterday those wily creeps rejected the status quo
Today they smarm and charm passageways to its very heart
Where's the free individual in all that?
Where's the hope and aspiration?
Identities have become corporations
Social egos and media moulds
Scholars of ad-man's dreams. prescribed futures;
Must we all down aspirins and shine beneath borrowed tans?
Are we really so dumb, so cowered into submission
That not only are we prepared to eat shit
We're also prepared to say thanks for the privilege?
Why should we accept servility as a bargain for dignity?
Why should we passively accept death as a bargain for living?
Why accept this robbery of life? why accept this pillage?
For christ's sake take up your bed and walk
Let the blind see end the deaf hear
The rights of the individual are dependent upon
You realising your right as an individual
People are so easily deluded into thinking they've instrumented choice
Where in reality they're nothing but passive observers
Passive observers do nothing but passively observe
Passively soak up creativity and say "wow, that's me!"
Passively soak up destruction and say "oh no, not us, not me"
There are those who strive for value and meaning;
Who search for reason and purpose;
Their efforts are negated by the passive observers

*
They spend days before the t.v. set so burned out
Is it any wonder they've lost all sense of vision and possibility?
What chance does anyone have when all the spaces are filled?
Sipping breakfast teas to the sound of space invaders

*
Television is today's nuremberg
Bowing to its authority, they become it
I've seen four year old children conforming to media roles
Main-lining the gross theatre that will become their lives
The television has so dampened people's anger
The population is mesmerised by the flickering screen
And the streets, where the politics of reality were once created
Are deserted at night and the rulers sleep secure
They are under no threat as long as the people are sedated
Those who suffer head-aches from excessive intake of electrons are prescribed valium
Or pay for a fix at the pub where men have to piss up the wall
And the stench of urine lasts well into the next pint

*
Entertainment is designed to gloss over real problems
And very often those who profess dissent only add to the deception
Words are banded about, but always at the whim of the puppeteer
Actionless sloganeering is just another punch and judy show

*
Any information that we receive concerning the real world is carefully controlled
Why else would fiction have such licence?
We are allowed to see endless theatrical deaths
But when the real deaths started on the falklands
Government censors prevented us from seeing them
We were given the excuse of 'national security'
By the lying shits who were interested only in saving their political skins
It didn't matter a fuck to them how many died
As long as their popularity ratings didn't suffer
For that reason alone we were shielded from the truth
While the real violence is kept from us
We are exposed to constant pantomimes of death and destruction
Those in power are rightly aware that if we had access to the real facts
We would cease to be simply passive observers
Media coverage of viet nam created massive dissent in the u.s.a
Thatcher's government was aware of that when, embarking on the falkland charade
They refused press cards to anyone who they knew would not support their line
Those who did travel to the falklands found their reports dramatically cut down
Meanwhile, at home, we were fed fabrications of britain's 'glorious war'
The truth that is now filtering out paints a very different picture

*
It's often been said that truth is the first casualty of war
It is, but the same could be said of life
From birth we are threatened and beaten into submission
By family, church, school and state
From then on we're easy game for the powermongers
Like pathetic circus dogs we hunt out praise
Or, when our true nature finds its way to the surface
We hide in the darkness, our tails between our legs
At all costs we are prevented from realising our own potential
We are conditioned into being passive observers
If the ring-master offers war
We have been conditioned to passively accept it
War can only exist through passive acceptance
It is nothing but a demonstration of the weakness of human will

*
If the clown offered peace
We will have been conditioned to accept that too
But peace can not and will not be maintained through passive acceptance
Peace will require constant demonstrations of personal strength
Constant effort, constant hard work
Reappraisal, consideration and devotion
Which of those qualities were you taught in schoolroom?
Whereas war simply requires the masses as cannon-fodder
Peace requires individuals to realise their own potential
The odds are hopelessly against because the state deliberately destroys human will

*
Passive observers offer nothing but decay
The flowerbeds need weeding, the roses need cutting back before winter
Freed from sedation, released from bondage
People would demonstrate their own strength
But the powerful elite are aware of this
And already have tabs on those who they regard as subversives
It is easy for them to single out and intimidated us
And easier still for us simply not to bother

*
It is impossible to gauge the effect that demands for peace may be having
The authorities are skilled at concealing dissatisfaction
For so long people have been saying "no more war"
But for all those demands little has changed
Seeing that the peace movement was growing in strength
Thatcher appointed heseltine as minister of defence
One specific part of his job is to discredit cnd
Such is the nature of conservative democraty

*
As pacifist we are too easily forced back into tokenism
Making hollow gestures against the wheels of the juggernaut
The line is delicate
The spaces have always been created by the gentle and caring
To be later filled by bullies and egotists
We can try to fill those spaces with the strength of our love
Gandhi called it ahimsa. the greenham wowan call it the 'politics of whimsy'
But it doesn't end there, neither is it enough
Gandhi played a major role in liberating india from britain rule
But conditions in india are still appaling for the ordinary people
Limiting greenham peace camp to women only is a sensible political ploy
But if it is a demonstration of sexual exclusivity it is a sham
Aren't we seeking to destroy all forms of exclusivity?
Does our own oppression give us the right to oppress others?
Unless we are prepared to oppose all oppression
We stand guilty of direct contribution to it

*
The neo-fascist plunder our land
And we must resist them on every level
As outsiders we have few right with which to oppose them
But on our own, together, we seek them
They have their law and those who impose it
We only have ourselves and each other
They have their order and those who impose it
We only have ourselves and each other
It is easy to dismiss those who seek peace as dreamers
But isn't our whole culture built on past dreams?
It is essential that our dreams become a reality
Or there will cease to be one

*
Harrods boast that it can supply any whim that its wealthy clients might express
Well let them supply me an exocet missile and a starving third world child
And I'll tell them the politics of choice
Equality doesn't enter into the ghettos of wealth
Beneath the protective sheath of thatcher's economy
The right, rich and privileged get even richer
And they, in turn, support her barbaric policies both at home and overseas
The falklands war cost britain over sixteen thousand million pounds - in whose pocket?

*
Throughout the world millions of people are employed making armaments
Don't they realise that it's ordinary people like themselves who'll suffer the effects of their filthy labour?

*
The wealthy obscene with their obscene wealth
Applaud the carnage from their grandstand
It's as if they were at ascot laying their bets;
Five to one on the four horsemen
They believe that money can buy them out of the responsibility
That they have for the world that they bleed dry
They are the true pornographers
The real stylists in human perversion
Rich educated tarts sit dumbly by
Watching their fortunes rise and fall
In the neatly pressed pin-striped trousers of the city
Debutante whores in rich men's castles

*
The ruling elite with their puppet figurehead
Queen elizabeth the second, regina virgina
Strut about on the million of bodies
That they have sacrificed to gain their position
Who are these leaders but those who have made violence pay?
Who are they but the inheritors of their ancestors greed and theft?
Their blood stained flags are rags to our future
Tattered remnant of our individual rights
These rulers are common murderers and thieves
But still we bow before them
For how long will the masses be so pathetically manipulated by god, queen and country?

*
For fucks sake where are we in all this?
We're given life yet we court death
For christ's sake how long? how long, oh lord, how long?
Still we lay prostrate before a stylised figure on a crucifix
As if the stone fool might be resurrected
We are expected to bargain our lives for his
And join him in the ugliness of perpetual christian guilt
He hangs there as a remainder of our own subjugation
Let it be known that he alone is christ
Those who dare emulate him shall suffer thus
Each settlement is spiked with that stupid image
Each conscience nailed to that diet of corruption

*
Military acts are bathed in those gory tales
Tired marines, edgy to fuck and sleep, are blessed in his name
Pious virgins in desire kneel in worship before the myth
In anticipation of their own death, they await his coming
Sweet jesus have mercy on me
Sweet jesus, they share his agony
Sweet jesus, they share his misery
Fuck his loaded deity

*
Over half the world's population is starving
Crucified by the greed of landowners
Helpless against the imbalance of priorities
Practiced by the major powers who, if they wanted to, could help
Every minute of the day millions upon million of pounds
Are spent on the machinery of war
If only a half of that was spent on the machinery of peace
There would be no more starvation on this planet
Yet governments pay no heed to the cries of suffering
They perhaps make token gestures to appease their consciences
But no real improvements are made
Because to ensure control the superpowers need to maintain the imbalance
Natives are slaughtered in their homelands
By governments seeking out new possessions
Most of the wealth of the so called developed nations
Has been gained at the expense of the third world
From whom natural resources, both mineral and human
Have been unscrupulously exploited
Peoples' pride and dignity is burnt in napalm
And hand-held flame-throwers
The poor and underprivileged are raped and tormented
By leaders who use their power not to assist, but to oppress
At the wave of a gloved hand
These people can, and do
Send young men to their death
But not before others too have fallen from their bayonets and guns
Such armies are invariably called 'peace keeping forces'
The hypocrisy is as appalling as it is obvious
The wealthy, educated, privileged and secure
Make the lives of those less fortunate a complete misery
Million upon millions of people are dying from malnutrition
Because, to stabilise their economies, governments destroy food rather than giving it to the needy

*
"Let them eat cake" said marie antoinette
As she wiped the calf's blood from her lips

*
"Proud to be british" said margaret thatcher
As she wiped the falkland's blood from her hands

*
The ruling elite have no concept of what it is to suffer want
Yet it is they who are directly responsible
In a world where there are people who can't afford a crust of bread
These arrogant scabs drive around in bentleys and rolls royces
Perhaps it amuses them to rub shit into the faces of the poor
But there'll come a time when such overt displays of wealth
Will not be tolerated by the people in the street
In a sane society wealth and possession would not be an asset

*
A few years ago a politician was on the radio
Saying that no one in the uk suffered from want
Next day I saw an old man pleading for a handful of coal;
His wife was dying of cold and he was penniless
Maybe in the morning, as the politician sipped breakfast tea
She lay cold and dead before the empty grate
Every year thousand of people die of hypothermia
Too hungry, too cold, too poor to stay alive

*
At times of national crisis it's always the poor who suffer
"Back britain" we're told
As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer
At times of international crisis it's the same story
"Back britain" we're told
As the rich get richer and the poor get killed
In the event of a nuclear crisis
The rich will retreat to private bunkers with their wealth and possessions

*
The injustice of inequality is sanctioned by the church
With its tradition of finance from the gentry
The church has always been obliged
To ensure that its flock remains servile
"Repent ye sinners or be devoured in the flames of hell."
Those very same flames that devoured their enemies in countless religious wars

*
So often the church has marched hand in hand with the military
Casting its blessings upon the writhing bodies of the battlefield
Each stab of bayonet is god's word
Each crash of steel is god's word
Each torn limb and splash of blood is god's word
For he so loved the world he gave our only begotten sons
Each sodden grave and sodding death is god's word
For he so loved the world he gave our only begotten sons
For he so loved the world he gave our only begotten sons

*
In christian societies executions are attended by representatives of the church
Goggle-eyed before the gallows, the electric chair and the gas-chamber
They administer their christ's blessing
In america poison is injected into the blood-stream
Another christ dies, jacked up by the state
Another glorious advance for civilisation
One small step for man
One giant step for mankind
For he so loved the world
He gave us his only begotten son
And likewise we are expected so to do
For he so loved the world

*
Violent, vicious hypocrisy
How is anyone supposed to deal with these contradictions
Confusions and lies? they defy reason
Oh yes, you can inwardly laugh at the absurdity
Satirise the obscenity, but the hysteria soon wears thin
And the tears wear a colder complexion
Humour can offer diversion
But it dilutes real anger
And nothing gets confronted
We are ruled by dangerous mad-people
What's funny about that for fucks sake?
The world is daily threatened with annihilation
Is that really something to be trivialased?
The world is under constant threat
Against this background of fear
We struggle to create our own authority
While being bludgeoned into conformity
We struggle to find our inner selves
Of course I feel uncomfortable when I'm laughed at in the streets
But I don't want to be one of them
I want to be an outsider
At the same time I'd like to come in out of the cold

*
Urgency overrules personal fears
Against the scenario of total destruction
We demand a sanity that might save the world
That alone excludes us from the mainstream of thought
History offers no solutions
Quotes from mao or stalin, hitler or marx
Simply confirms the oppression
I'm tired of political experts
Tired of 'if onlys'
They have always been the same people
Grey visionless robots
Who would have us all share their death
History is simply a justification for oppression
Written by those who practice it
It is being constantly changed and rewritten
To conform to the requirements of the ruling elite
A tempest of convenience that blasts across the blistered bodies of the dead
We receive at best only filtered truths
Most of what we see and hear is lies

*
The falklands war was rewritten as it happened
It was not a glorious victory for the british spirit
Nor an heroic defeat of a fascist dictator
It was a callous and savage piece of electioneering
Designed to cover up horrific domestic problems
At a time when a peaceful settlement was a possibility
Thatcher personally ordered the sinking of the general belgrado
Killing over three hundred men
And horribly mutilating many more
She did this because her political neck required bloodshed
To prove her wisdom in releasing the task force
The history books will not document her as a cold-blooded murderer

*
I'm tired of the dull rationalisation of the politicians
Weighed down with their sums and inadequacies
I feel only anger and bellied hatred for them
How can anyone become so distorted?
How can anyone be so far from real human values?
I feel only disgust for their twisted minds
How can peace be achieved through threats of violence?
What kind of hope is there in that strait-jacket?

*
The authority of those who oppress us
Is supported, maintained and defended
By those who are themselves the most oppressed;
Those who, because they have no alternative, are in service to the rulers

*
How can I feel anger towards the squaddy?
Weighed down with his guns and inadequacies
I can feel only pity and bellied compassion
How can anyone be so distorted?
How can anyone be so far from real human values?
I can only feel pity for his twisted mind
How can freedom be achieved if the poor fight to uphold
The privileges of those who directly oppress them?

*
We look through one eye hoping the other won't see
That way we only need deal with a half of it
Like bloody ostriches, oblivious
Not because we are, but because we choose to be
Most people see through the lies
But are too afraid to admit it
It's so much easier to be the passive observer
How much longer can people afford to just sit by like this?
All the indications are there
Massive unemployment
Recession, depression
But who's looking? who cares?
Tamely the population is being led down the road to total bondage
Government is daily strengthening its powers
Those who stand against it are ridiculed
Discredited or abused and punished
Those in power are totally cynical
Rather than analysing the seriousness of the problem
They simply strengthen the army and police to combat it
They are ready for the inevitable response
It happened in brixton, toxteth and moss side
It happens daily in northern ireland
Under thatcher's regime there has been massive increases in police brutality
In london police shot down a man
Only to find it was the wrong person
We regret to inform you. regret to inform you
Regret to inform you. we regret to inform you
That today another christ was shot in the back of the head
We regret to inform you. regret to inform you
That another christ, not yet ten years old, was shot today
By agents of her majesty's government, with a plastic bullet
They say that plastic bullets were designed not to kill
They do
I say that human beings were not designed to kill, not us, not me;
We do
We regret to inform you

*
1984 is a book about the positive danger of totalitarianism
Under thatcher's unfeeling guidance the scenario is one year early
With the cold mechanism of the pin ball arcade
We're flicked around as numbers by the hidden computers
Software in the hardware. documented and filed
We have no access to the information that they have stored on us
Ticker-tape alter egos, print-out portraits
We are becoming another
As individuals within that mechanical system we are arbitrary
Wanted only for what can be taken from us
Our future is of no concern to the mega-corporations
Who determine the nature of our economic well-being
Thatcher's policies require massive unemployment
Which makes her order to 'support our boys' nothing but a fucking insult
When they were eight thousand miles away dying for her arrogance
She fabricated what was a complete mockery of compassion
When they're at home, jobless on the streets
She doesn't give a fuck for them
Self determination and self enterprise are her big lines
But just how much of that does she offer to others
In her contemptible use of people?
She was prepared to risk world peace
Saying that it was for the self determination of the falklanders
Those very same people who over a year ago
She was prepared to abandon without a thought
And now, for all her empty talk
They are forced to live in a fortress waiting for further hostilities
Thatcher has recently sanctioned a loan of one hundred million pounds to argentina
Claiming that it was to stabilise world economy
The purchase of further exocets and the development of nuclear potential
Should do much for world economy, but very little for world security
Just what the fuck was all that bloodshed for?

*
Thatcher has signed away british self-determination in one single stroke
She has agreed to install deadly cruise missiles on british soil
Over which the americans have total control
The american military presence is designed solely
To limit nuclear war with russia to the 'european theatre'
Meanwhile we are sold the wicked lie of protection and deterrence
American war planners have repeatedly stated that they intend
To fight the third world war on european soil;
Cruise missiles greatly increase the danger of that happening
Designed to avoid radar detection by skimming the earth's surface
Cruise missiles are seen as the ideal 'first strike weapon'
They also guarantee a massive response that would make britain into a nuclear desert
Military naivety is astounding. the experts seriously believe
That they will be able to limit war to the 'theatre'
In this particular show the world will be the stage
There'll be no encore

*
Thatcher and her cronies talk of 'limited tactical response'
And 'executive action' causing 'collateral damage'
These terms are borrowed from their american counterparts
And are designed to mask the ugly reality that they describe
In everyday language 'collateral damage' simply means civilian deaths
In the event of nuclear attack on britain that would amount to thirty-eight million people
Is it any wonder that these crazy psychotics
Invent jargon to assist them in their studied madness?
Every year hundreds of innocent people still die horrific deaths
As a result of the bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki
It is probably that an all out nuclear war
Would destroy all life on planet earth

*
We are not talking fantasy
Nor preaching doom
We are talking of an existing reality;
The one that we allow to exist around us

*
Defence secretary heseltine disputes the kind of information that we offer
Claiming that it has 'no basis in fact'
There are no words to describe the utter contempt
That we feel for people of his kind
They sit in their seats of power
Distorting and perverting all human decency
How can they dare be so blatant?
How can they dare be so hypocritical?
Who is this heseltine with his corrupt lies?
Who is this thatcher with her arrogant deceit?
These hideous mutants cast their shadows
Across all that is worthwhile and good

*
Cruise missile will be installed because thatcher has created some kind of deal with reagan
We will probably never know the details of that arrangement
It will almost certainly involve some kind of economic juggling act
The massive corporations turning political thumbscrews
On u.s. investment in britain
Russian tanks in afghanistan are nothing
Compared with the bargaining power of american capital in the uk
Whatever the nature of that deal is
It has made britain into america's front line
The fifty-third state, with no rights of citizenship
To many people that might not matter
Fed from birth on american propaganda and hollywood trash
The resistance levels are low
As long as we passively accept american domination
We can except no real advance
We are being sold down the line

*
To many people the missiles and warheads might not matter
To many people nuclear reality is too huge to contemplate
Yet for all people the reality looms constantly in nightmares
In the nuclear state we are expected to accept those nightmares
Is this really all that we can hope for as life?
Is this really all that we can hope for as death?
Maybe our lives don't matter that much
But why impose our madness on future generations?
Or is it perhaps that you no longer believe that there will be future generations?
In your passive acceptance of it
You have already allowed the holocaust to happen
The future is ended

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We are not talking fantasy
Nor preaching doom
We are talking of an existing reality
The one that we allow to exist around us

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The nuclear hardware produces in the last three decades
Will pollute the earth for thousands of years
A nuclear war will destroy it
Is that why the cherry trees blossom?
You are destroying and corrupting
In condemning them to the nuclear nightmare
Are you willing to accept the burning of tomorrow's unborn?
They know nothing of this sorrow

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Suffer little children to come unto me
Suffer little children to come unto me
Suffer little children to come unto me
Suffer little children to come unto me

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In your refusal to act against these hideous dangers
You are guilty of being the gutless passive observer
Are you so inhuman that you will let this happen?
Just a helpless bystander waving your flag in mute acceptance?
Take up your eyes and see
Take up your ears and hear
Take up your mind and think
Take up your life and act

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It is up to us all as responsible citizens of earth
To work towards the downfall of the powerful elite
Their rule has created dreadful suffering
Their insanity precludes all reason and compassion
They lie, trick and manipulate
They are the maggots in the flesh of decency
The vultures that pick at the bones of hope
The carriers of famine, war, pestilence, and death

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They must be stopped
Why should people die for their insanity?
Why should people starve for their insanity?
Why should people suffer the spitefulness of their greed?
We must not be intimidated by the authority that they appear to have
We must be prepared to oppose them on every level
To fight back in the knowledge that if we don't
We will have failed in our responsibility to life itself
It has happened before
That the powerless have risen against the oppressor
Only to be beaten back
But there have been cases where they have succeeded
Ours is a just cause
It is up to each one of us, alone, to do our best
We must learn to overcome our fears
We must realise that the strength that they have
Is the strength that we give them
It is you, the passive observer who has given them this power
You are being used and abused
And will be discarded as soon as they've bled what they want from you. you must learn to live with your own conscience
Your own morality
Your own decision
Your own self
You alone can do it
There is no authority but yourself

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One squaddy, horrifically burnt in the falklands war
Was approached by prince charles during a presentation
"Get well soon" said the prince, to witch the squaddy replied
"Yes sir, I will"