I want to pledge allegiance to the country where I live
I don’t want to be ashamed to be American
But opportunity, no, it don’t exist
It’s the opiate of the populace
We need some harder shit now
The truth is getting around
And each public school is a halfway house
Where the huddled masses somber up and up
Enough?
There’s not enough to fatten the cows and feed all of us
It’s just a rationing of luck
What can’t be bought gets raffled off
Oh God, good God
Shed greed on thee
Your shining sea turned a dirty green from the industry
Off the shores of New Jersey
I got a letter from the army, so I think that I’ll enlist
I’m not brave or proud of nothing I just want to kill something
Too bad that nowadays you just point and click
Swing low satellite, hot white chariot!
In the computer’s blue glare, the bombs burst in the air
There was a city once - now nothing is there
Our freedom comes at their expense
It makes sense, doesn’t it?
Dollars and cents
They’re stretching barbed wire across the picket fence
That is surrounding your housing development
Just in case you lack the confidence
My God, oh God, give strength to thee
These amber waves, purple majesty
Are nothing but backdrops for Disney
Well, look up close
It is superimposed on a blank blue screen
It is fantasy, fucking magical
The dream floats like a chemical through each snapped synapse
Our television past that is beautiful no more, no more


Lyrics submitted by ang

The Happiest Place on Earth song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    This song is an amazing commentary on our commerlized lives. the American DREAM is a joke. It doesn't exist. Our freedom was the END of soooooo many lives in soooooo many other places in the world.

    but the way Oberst puts it all is amazing. It's like yeah I want to be proud of my country, but the truth is we are exploting the world. it's all about money and power and it's passed on the techincality of "freedom" and that we are furthering the American Dream. What dream?

    We need some goddamn hope. We need a yellow bird. We need something. Or else yeah lets just press a button and blow something up. WHat's it to us? we're furthering the future of the best country in the world.

    whydoesitmatteron June 24, 2007   Link

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