Tag Archives: USA

Wasteland Of The Free?

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I wouldn’t normally post on successive days, but when I was having one of my listening sessions on YouTube late last night they dropped a tune into my recommendations that I hadn’t heard in years. As I listened it struck me how relevant it still was even though it was released in 1996. Possibly even more so, given all that has happened in the US in the past eight years in particular.

I have no aspirations to be a political commentator – others do that far better than I could – so I’m just going to play you the song and share its lyrics. You can make your own mind up about it. But if you are American please ensure that you vote, and vote wisely. The rest of the world – most of it, anyway – is holding its collective breath and keeping its fingers crossed.

 

Living in the wasteland of the free…
 
We got preachers dealing in politics and diamond minesAnd their speech is growing increasingly unkindThey say they are Christ’s disciplesBut they don’t look like Jesus to meAnd it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free
 
We got politicians running races on corporate cashNow don’t tell me they don’t turn around and kiss them peoples’ assYou may call me old-fashionedBut that don’t fit my picture of a true democracyAnd it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free
 
We got CEO’s making two hundred times the workers’ payBut they’ll fight like hell against raising the minimum wageAnd If you don’t like it, mister, they’ll ship your jobTo some third-world country ‘cross the seaAnd it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free
 
Living in the wasteland of the freeWhere the poor have now become the enemyLet’s blame our troubles on the weak onesSounds like some kind of Hitler remedyLiving in the wasteland of the free
 
We got little kids with guns fighting inner city warsSo what do we do, we put these little kids behind prison doorsAnd we call ourselves the advanced civilizationThat sounds like crap to meAnd it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free
 
We got high-school kids running ’round in Calvin Klein and GuessWho cannot pass a sixth-grade reading testBut if you ask them, they can tell youThe name of every crotch on MTVAnd it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free
 
We kill for oil, then we throw a party when we winSome guy refuses to fight, and we call that the sinBut he’s standing up for what he believes inAnd that seems pretty damned American to meAnd it feels like I am living in the wasteland of the free
 
Living in the wasteland of the freeWhere the poor have now become the enemyLet’s blame our troubles on the weak onesSounds like some kind of Hitler remedyLiving in the wasteland of the free
 
While we sit gloating in our greatnessJustice is sinking to the bottom of the seaLiving in the wasteland of the freeLiving in the wasteland of the freeLiving in the wasteland of the free
 
Source: LyricFind
Songwriter: Iris DeMent