A Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindler

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 cowed 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 realizing 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 theater that will become their lives
The television has so dampened people's anger
The population is mesmerized 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 license?
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 Vietnam 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 power-mongers!
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 realizing 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 realize 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!