the framework of the world
is black and white
the infrastructure builders
flex their might

turning true emotion
into digital expression
one by one we all fall down

the gray race shrivels
trapped inside the world it creates
it's black and white

the perputual destructive
motion machine
began to chart a course
never before seen

turning raw compassion
into fields of plus and minus
one by one we all give in

the gray race shrivels
trapped inside the world it creates
it's black and white

I'd swear there were times when I was someone else
a person with determination and knowledge of the self
but you flattened me to rubble and now I can see that I'm
just faded negative of the image I used to be

and that's our dilemma

despite that he saw blatant similarity
he struggled to find a distinctive moiety
all he found was vulgar superficiality
but he focused it to sharpness
and shared it with the others
it signified his anger and misery

them and us
lobbying determined through a mire of disbelievers
them and us
dire perpetuation and incongruous insistence
that there really is a difference
between them and us

hate is a simple manifestation
of the deep-seated self-directed frustration
all it does is promote fear and constrenation
it's the inability
to justify the enemy
and it fills us all with trepidation

them and us
bending the significance to match a whimsied fable
them and us
tumult for the ignorant and purpose for the violence
a confused loose alliance forming
them and us

I heard him say
we can take them all
(but he didn't know who they were,
and he didn't know who we were.
and there wasn't any reason or
motive, or value, to his story,
just allegory, imitation glory,
and a desperate feeble search for a friend)

I'm going for a walk
not the after dinner kind
I'm gonna use my hands
and I'm gonna use my mind

and who the hell are you to tell me what to do?
you can't even tie your own haggard shoes
your closet is a mess, and your backyard's falling down
and I have no grand ideas or intentions of sticking around

I'm gonna build a world
independant and exempt
all alone I'll be an empire
with no mortgage and no rent

and I don't need to live in your stinking zoo
you can't even feed the animals donated to you
your storage sheds are ramshackled, flies decorate the walls
and you expect me to die here in this shit-filled tiny stall?

and I know you're watching! everything I do
call me threat to your children call me socially unglued
call me master of insanity, unable to relate
call me lazy, bane, and filthy
call me monstrous reprobate

I'm going for a walk and there's nothing you can do
'cuz I don't have to live like you
so I'm going for a walk

sleeping on a time bomb, staring into space
there's an ocean of unpleasantries we are not prepared to face

sitting on the fence post to watch the storm roll in
and terrified of the damage it will bring when it begins
it will begin

splintered dreams of unity (our lives are parallel)
so far from reality (our lives are parallel)
independent trajectories (our lives are parallel)
separate terms of equality (our lives are parallel)

our lives are parallel

is there no redemption? no common good?
is there nothing we can do for ourselves? or only what we should?

comes the hard admission of what we don't provide
goes the insistence on the ways and means that so divide

they so divide

side by side suffering loneliness (our lives are parallel)
phony collective progress (our lives are parallel)
accepting that it's all such a mess (our lives are parallel)
gesturing without hope of redress (our lives are parallel)

our lives are parallel

forging little plays of deception and pain
as we watch our foundation crumble away
staggering like birds against a hurricane
and trying all the while to stay out of each other's way

broken dreams of unity (our lives are parallel)
independant trajectories (our lives are parallel)
screaming out for understanding (our lives are parallel)
turning inward and suffering (our lives are parallel)

have you been to the desert?
have you walked with the dead?
there's a hundred thousand children being killed for their bread

and the figures don't lie they speak of human disease
but we do what we want and we think what we please

have you lived the experience?
have you witnessed the plague?
people making babies sometimes just to escape
in this land of competition the compassion is gone
yet we ignore the needy and we keep pushing on
we keep pushing on

this is just a punk rock song
written for the people who can see something's wrong
like ants in a colony we do our share
but there's so many other fuckin' insects out there
and this is just a punk rock song
(like workers in a company we do our share
but there's so many other fuckin' robots out there)

have you visited the quagmire?
have you swam in the shit?
the party conventions and the real politik
the faces always different, the rhetoric the same
but we swallow it, and we see nothing change
nothing has changed...

10 million dollars on a losing campaign
20 million starving and writhing in pain
big strong people unwilling to give
small in vision and perspective
one in five kids below the poverty line
one population runnin' out of time

everwhere you looked there was confusion, violence, drama and drugs
so many righteous revolutionaries spouting utopian love
everyone shrouded in purple haze
then one day they woke up from their dream state
they found themselves no more at peace than before
older, meek, and conformed

empty causes
a bluster for the soul, a fix for their mind
empty causes
cling to everything you find

well, the shots rang out like popcorn
and the Chief was hit and rushed out of sight
the mohawk-chain, leather brigade rejoiced maliciously on that night
someone cried out fuck the government
his mates couldn't define what he meant
so no one gave him the time of day
and the scene died away

empty causes
a war for the body, an army in the mind
empty causes
losing steam as time goes by

could it be that everybody selfishly desires their own personal retinue
and that causes are just manifestations
of too much time and far to little to do

empty causes
direction for the soul, conviction for the mind
empty causes
cling to everything you find
empty causes
you've got yours and I've got mine

hey mister, don't point at me
you shout rhetoric nonsense like a Pavlovian model
responding to his questions

hey teacher, arrogance is bliss
you spend your time turning water into life
as if you were God's foreman

is it any wonder
things seem so awry?
the masses are cloaked in confusion?
we don't have to think to survive
so nobody listens

hey recluse, dont shout at me
you proclaim yourself expert by extensions of the methods
detailed in your magazines

hey downer, don't prey on me
we've all got bum raps that torment us day to day
that we hoist on our own shoulders

is it any wonder
people pass you by?
your plea for understanding
is heard as desperate lies?
nobody listens

I can't help you...

is it any wonder
things are so inane?
so many quests for compassion
are just for someone's personal gain

so nobody listens to you

there's a boy in crimson rags with a grimace and a spoon, and a little sullen
girl face-up staring at the moon
and there's no one around to hear their lonesome cries
then they pass away alone into the night

why do we pity the dead?
are you churned by emotion from voices in your head?
(are you scared of the logic that swirls within your head)
look at all the living and you'll ask yourself why
oh why do we
pity the dead?
pity the dead!

well, you've seen the disease, suffering and decay,
and you whisper to yourself blissfully it's okay
and you still refuse the possibility
that the dead are better off than we

tell me what you see, tell me what you know
is there anyone who lives a painless life?
if there is show me so
the destitute and famished, demonic and the
banished, dejected and the ostracized, the
brainwashed and the paralyzed, the conquered
and objectified, the few who see the other side
tell me what you see! It's a mortal wretched cacophony

in the end you may find there's no guiding subtle light,
no ancestors or friends, no judge of wrong or right
just eternal silence and dormancy
and a final everlasting peace

shed a tear for the criminal, give him something to believe
light a fire for the miserable, give the darkness some meaning
closed wounds harbor pestilence, when you lick them from within
charity has a redolence chastity cannot rescind

spirit shine, it's a sign
of a troubled mind (tortured mind)
spirit shine all the time
can render you blind

you can take it all to heart or throw it all away
you can give until you're dry and sucked of all your gleam
you can fake another cry and compromise your dream

cling tight to the parable - let it dominate your life
create a God who's infallible - give your leader some respite
clouds wounds harbor pestilence - when you lick them from within
rosy smiles lose their radience - when you take it on the chin

desolate and without purpose
radiating from so many septic sources
forming the fabric of a wayward people
disappearing as the vestiges of our past

scratched like tartan into virgin soil
a substrate for progress and disarray
a spreading network of broken dreams
searching for a thoroughfare to take us away

just a little tale from the streets of America (say a little prayer)
sparkled promises paved with pathos and hysteria
trenchant, weary native sons
step back
and see the damage done
meander to the horizon (shoot straight to the horizon)
the streets of America

black, tarred concrete
pine for me
lying domant
for you and country
hardened surface
cracked within
catch the sweat
from off the chin

of men and women
senior and child
who look to you
and your sterile miles
and in their stares
is bald dismay
for what you promised
led them astray

hard-cracked, daunting, lifeless veins
false hope corridors to greener pastures is all that remains

parched, cracked mouths, empty swollen guts
sun-baked pavement encroaches on us
haves and have-nots together at last
brutally engaged in mortal combat
10 in 2010

what kind of God orchestrates such a thing?
10 in 2010
ten billion people all suffering
10 in 2010
truth is not an issue just hungry mouths to feed
10 in 2010
forget what you want, scrounge the things you need

happy and content it can't happen to you
10 in 2010
fifteen years we'll think of a solution
10 in 2010
it won't just appear in one day
10 in 2010
for ten in twenty-ten we're well on our way

like piercing ear darts, I heard the news today
10 in 2010
10 billion people...coming your way

the velveteen and oaken soothed the lonely child
the parents watched the escort take him while they stood outside
the priest was kind and gentle as he positioned his head
the pain was like brimstone, but the kid hardly bled

victory
instinct over intellect
victory
it erupts from deep inside
history
history is laughing at us
plotting its discovery
victory, victory
blame it on the victory

among the parade crowd there stands a decorated man
remembering how he helped to save this sacred land
his helpless enemy was wounded, both hands raised with hope
he killed him without second thought, with brute force and a rope

so many times, so many lives
test the other side
waiting to see what the maker has in mind

the unsuspecting commoners hum diligent each day
they wallow in their father's sins, as time passes away
the crimes are without motive but they ignore all restraint
the evil sits inside them torpid timing its escape

the smell of virgin pages wafted through the swinging doors
and the croaking speech he'd heard from countries counselors before
they said we all care for you, we know how you suffer
but I know you can succed, I used to have it so much rougher

there's hope in the words and emotion in the eyes
it's so easy to be misled by the savvy gentle guise
and like fools we trust the delivery
but it's all just drunk sincerity

in maternal family assembly poised regarding the blue tube
the numbers crept up higher and the hawks stayed out of view
then the generals said we dont want our boys dead
your sons and your husbands will be coming back heroes soon

with steam, heat, and rhythm in the back seat of the car
and adolescent perspective projecting life's forecast to the stars
you heard love from the lips and you were rapt by the hips
and the promise was eternal but you couldn't see that far

so you say you gotta know why the world goes 'round
and you can't find the truth in the things you've found
and you're scared shitless 'cuz evil abounds
come and join us

well I heard you were looking for a place to fit in
full of adherent people with the same objective
a family to cling to and call brethren
come and join us

all we want to do is change your mind
all you need to do is close your eyes

so come and join us
come and join us
come and join us

don't you see the trouble that most people are in
and that they just want you for their own advantage
but I swear to you we're different from all of them
come and join us
I can tell you are lookin' for a way to live
where truth is determined by consensus
full of codified arbitrary directives
come and join us
all we want to have is your small mind
turn it into one of our own kind
you can go through life adrift and alone
desperate, desolate, on your own
but we're lookin' for a few more stalwart clones
so come and join us
come and join us
come and join us

we've got spite and dedication as a vehement brew
the world hates us, well we hate them too
but you're exempted of course if you
come and join us
independent, self-contented, revolutionary
intellectual, brave, strong and scholarly
if you're not one of them, you're us already so
come and join us

blacktop pavement cover me
like a chemical reaction or a steam roller
spreading randomly

there's a distant and a low frequency
it tickles my ear, it rumbles under my feet
and it shakes the leaves off of every tree (violently)
what pretension! Everlasting peace
everything must cease

institution on the Hill
like a beacon in the mind of an ancestor
to ignite a people's will

there's a shadowed stain on the west facade
it has spread like decay to enshroud the fraud
and the descendants find oh so odd
(oh so odd)
what pretension! Everlasting peace
everything must cease

grave memorial hewn white stone
like the comforting caress of a mother
or a friend you've always known

it evokes such pain and significance
and the generations pass without recompense
what pretension! Everlasting peace
everything must cease