The Anti-Imperialist Song Cycle

David Pearson, composer (punkinthe1990s.com)
Amanda Zory, soprano (www.amandazory.com)
Walter Aparicio, piano (www.walteraparicio.com)

Composed in January 2021
Recorded August 2021
Recorded and mixed by Gregory Kostroff
Mastered by Matt Barba
Released November 19, 2021


Lyrics:

The Fauxhawksmen of the Apocalypse

Big beards and bangs, deliberately disheveled hair
Mass-marketed individuality for the mindless sheep to wear
Beware the false façade of artsy artifice
Beware the hipsters who brought on this apocalypse

(For their existence rests on CIA black sites)

Oversized glasses no longer used for better vision
All the better to not see an impending collision
Jeans became skinny and leggings became pants
Irony became a style of dance

(No dance moves came out of Abu Ghraib, just stress positions)

Take the style but ditch the content of every rebel counterculture
Picking off what’s past or dead just like a fucking vulture
A fauxhawk that doesn’t shock, a keffiyeh without intifada
Pre-faded metal tees, these devils don’t wear Prada

(In Abu Ghraib they wore hoods and electrodes)

As photos of torture went public, all too few got pissed
And the chance to avert apocalypse was missed
For we become what we choose not to resist
Exhibit A: McInnes, hipster apostle turned leading fascist

(Drowning in delusions as waterboarding drowned Iraqis)

Never before has conformity been so rapid
Never before has society been so vapid
The hipster’s cult of individualism reached the pinnacle of self-obsession
The pictures of torture were no match for the spectacle of self-obsession

(And when protest did re-emerge, it was the politics of self)


Disconnecting the Dots

These nice little gadgets come dripping with blood
These bribes of shiny trinkets to which we’ve succumb
Foxconn factory suicides
Civil wars fought over mines

As we sit serene
Staring at screens
The plasma glow distracts
The iPhone detracts
From connecting the dots
And making what ought
To be an obvious association
Between the means of exploitation
Used to make the material things we enjoy
These playthings and toys
That empire deploys
To keep us content and convinced
That we deserve this state of opulence

As if a vampire doesn’t exist by sucking the blood of its victim
As if sucking blood wasn’t the nature of the system


The Incessant Buzz Above

Incessant buzzing overhead
Joystick click trail of dead
Automated imperialist
dealing death to the drone hit list

Prey stalked below by the Predator drone
Hellfire missile creating carnage so vile

Hitting hospitals, weddings, funerals, the civilians killed called collateral
They even come back with a double tap bombing that procures deaths of rescuers
Depraved indifference to the innocents killed by orders of American presidents

Prey stalked below by the predator drone
Hellfire missile creating carnage so vile

From Waziristan to Afghanistan, Gaza, Somalia, Yemen now in flame
Fear the buzzing noise of empire’s new toys that they now deploy to hi-tech acclaim
Flying death robot, look at what it’s brought: wars remotely fought like it’s a video game

Raytheon and General Atomics continue to profit
On Terror Tuesdays they approve murders the White House saw fit

Nobel prize for aerial assassinations brought on oppressed nations
Sentinel, Global Hawk, surveilling the people used to plot more evil
Targets picked, no trial, signature strikes deprive countless victims of their lives

At Creech they pilot drones like it was playing PlayStation
So that Africom can bomb for imperial domination

We become the killers by remote control relinquishing our soul
For what is left when you accept this distant method delivering death on
innocents. Targeted by empire in our name by standing by we’re to blame

So will we now acquiesce to distant death to those subject to
(the) automated imperialist drone strike hit list? Or will we resist?


Lament or Celebration?

As the empire declines
As the center no longer holds
As politics becomes parody
As tragedy becomes farce
As Babylon burns
As the tide turns
As we get what we deserve

Do we lament the loss of imperial power?
Or celebrate the final hour?
Which side will we pick?
Is empire something we want to fix?
Or make its fall come quick?
Will we be imperialism’s cheerleader and pawn?
Or will we burn Babylon?


Take Your Fucking Selfie-Stick and Shove It Up Your Ass

Self-obsessed, selfishness, from being human we digress
Attention fix, feelings nixed, new norm now to act like dicks
Friend friend friend, all pretend, they’re merely means to an end
Snap a pic, upload quick, take your fucking selfie stick and shove it up your ass!

Must get likes and right swipes, these are our depraved delights
Every tweet, one more deceit, appearance now reality
Vanity, me me me, destroys our humanity
Snap a pic, upload quick, take your fucking selfie stick and shove it up your ass!

The more connected we’ve become
The more connection we’ve undone

Losing connectivity means losing our humanity
Projecting images we choose, oblivious to what we lose
When Silicon Valley plots to design
The self-obsessive culture of empire in decline

Take your selfie, upload quickly,
Don’t look to see how lives most of humanity