No Better World

I got inspired to write this song, after thinking about the future of the world I’ll soon be leaving behind. It’s sobering thoughts, thinking about our youth and how incredibly tough it is to survive, make a life, in today’s world.

“We don’t inherit the earth, we borrow it from our children.” Chief Seattle

I, maybe you - we in the west were mostly fortunate. We’ve been riding a bubble of wealth, abundance but it’s slowly deflating. And where once we believed and made central to our societies the idea of “A Better World” - now, this idea is all but forgotten. It’s now, “No Better World”. We’ve abandoned the future.

The song reflects that thought. I practiced my video editing skills and further inspired by this video and music (Wet Pants) of Chinese students in a subway. The Tang Ping or “lying flat” movement there.

Why has the world abandoned the idea of a “better world”? That’s the $24 question.

“A sane person to an insane society must be insane.” - Kurt Vonnegut

As I enter the classroom this January for my 35th year, I wonder what’s happened to the message of environmental harmony, sustainability which was once central to education. I’m proud of promoting that message to our youth.

AI data centers scar the earth and use up incredible amounts of energy, water. Yet, they are the future? There is this belief that technology will solve everything when in fact, it is consuming the world like a voracious cookie monster, piece by piece, precious metal after precious metal, tree by tree, soul by soul. Technotopias are sold to people without firm beliefs and who believe life is all about leisure, usury and things/stuff.

In the late 80s, I began noticing how the central idea of society, our fundamental belief was more and more about assigning a $ sign to everything. Business rules and was capturing regulation. Politicians were no longer managing our society but money managers, making government into a profitable thing - not leadership to manage our affairs and leave a better world for our children. A better world began to = more $ to be had.

And so it goes … It’s all about money, everything is for sale. I’ve been planning a trip across America and Canada by bike in the spring. When once, you could just camp anywhere in god’s splendor - the land, even public land, now is only for rent. Bed down on grass for the night and you’ll be arrested. It costs more to camp than to stay in a hotel room! Mother nature once gave, now you need to pay. And so it goes for everything.

You name it, it’s being monetized. Everything has a monetary value, even our most intimate affairs have a $ sign. Soon they’ll have an app to monitor your friendships and you’ll have to pay if you aren’t contributing enough to it. Scores of start-ups are finding ways to make you pay to experience the world. There is an app for everything and it also comes with a paywall. Soon you’ll have to subscribe to something or you won’t be able to get out your front door.

And why, why have we abandoned “A better world”? I’ll leave that for a further post but beyond what I’ve mentioned, it comes down to our fundamental beliefs - in a nutshell, our culture is now not sincerity and trust based but based on ego and distrust. Self promotion, facile surface vanity over authenticity and integrity. Once we stood by our words, who we are. Now, we remake our image over and over, distemporal and without attachment to the real, true. Makeitupism … Truth has been abandoned, it’s a momentary news cycle and truth has become the beating of chests … And I do think our media fed world, the dominance of hot media, audio/video has contributed a lot to this remaking of our image, our core beliefs. We are no longer participants in the world, mere voyeurs and customers. More on this another time.

No Better World

A friend died on the streets today
The world of money made him go away
The things that once drove me on
Are littered by the side of a busy road.

My friends have no time for me
They’re working every minute in hypocricy
I try to dream and hope out loud
But nobody hears me, it’s not allowed

Those dreams we once had
Are now blurry and gone bad
Those struggles for a better world
Now just make me so sad.

I live in my room with movies and lice
The world dying in front of me twice
Once out there, once inside
I’m sick of it. I no longer want to hide.

It’s no world for me
It’s no world for me
It’s no world for me
It’s no world for me

The person that you used to be
Is gone forever, lost in mediocrity
You wait for luck or something else
But the moments never come again
Those platitudes on the CEOs lips
The politicians lying with their whips
I live in my dark cave
Sailing on imaginary ships.

I don’t want to die poor and on my knees
I don’t want to have to keep asking please O please
The world is a scam
We’re just useless ants
The rich get richer, that’s the dance.
And still here I am.
Here I am.
Here I am.