Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious... Lyrics
We're all congressmen
We're all cops in waiting
We're the workers of the world
There is the only in the dispossessed
And it's only about survival
Who has skill to play the game for all it's worth
And reach an obscure kind of perfection
Let's try and not to remember any names
We'll do it for a country, for a people, for a moral vision
United we'll make them remember our history
Or how we like to be told, how we like to be told
We found our own reasons to sing
And it's so much less confusing when lines are drawn like that
When people are either consumers or revolutionaries
Enemies or friends hanging onto the fringes of the cogs in the system
All of the sudden, people start talkin' 'bout guns
Talkin' like they're going to war
'Cause they found something to die for
Start taking back what they stole
Sure beats every other option
It doesn't make a difference how we get it
No, no, no...
This song is a critique of the leftist movement in general and the labor movement in particular, which is pretty trenchant coming from a very apparent lefty (for the record, I am as well). It's at least more self-aware and critical of leftist politics than most punk rock polemics. The lines about "we're all presidents, we're all congressmen, we're all cops in waiting, we're the workers of the world" is an acknowledgment that class divisions are imaginary and fungible and that today's dockworker or plumber might be tomorrow's authority figure holding down the next generation of working people. Gabel then talks about how debate is contextualized in starker, less personal terms, about "survival" and playing the system, about how the definition of the self is instead recast in terms of "a country...a people...a moral vision". The idea of arbitrary social and class divisions is reiterated in the refrain which, if you listen to it in context, is a criticism of movements that boil very personal politics down to "us against them" until "all of a sudden, people are talking about guns, talking like we're going to war because they've found something to die for". Like, how did we get there? We went form point A to point D with no stops in between and in doing so have missed the point of leftist politics, which is about building a better, freer society, not enriching yourself at someone else's expense.
great song!
And isn't it "There is the elite and the dispossessed"? instead of "there is the only in the dispossessed"?
And isn't it "There is the elite and the dispossessed"? instead of "there is the only in the dispossessed"?
I think its elite... not only...
I think its elite... not only...
this song is the best!
this is one of best against me! songs
whoever posted this made a lot of mistakes...wow
super song, i love it
yeah, these lyrics are way fucked up
This is the best Against Me! song so far. The version on their self-titled is the best, in my opinion.
thier best song. well one of them. amazing voice.
thier best song. well one of them. amazing voice.