The Good Thing

I like your observations, Cerberusalpha!

I like your observations, Cerberusalpha!

From a 23-year-old's viewpoint, I listen to this song and I can really relate to it. Ok, here we go.

From a 23-year-old's viewpoint, I listen to this song and I can really relate to it. Ok, here we go.

Title: The Good Thing

Title: The Good Thing

Premise: A lot of us are born into families that perpetuate the notion of happiness and success as being an end result of working a job for the rest of your life. In fact, the words "happiness" and "success" can't even cut it: The majority of these people never even find whatever it is they've been led to believe is at the end of the tunnel...much less define it! Hence, it...

Premise: A lot of us are born into families that perpetuate the notion of happiness and success as being an end result of working a job for the rest of your life. In fact, the words "happiness" and "success" can't even cut it: The majority of these people never even find whatever it is they've been led to believe is at the end of the tunnel...much less define it! Hence, it is only called "The Good Thing". The thing that I don't want to spend my life slaving for. The pressure to work a straight career path is exponentially strengthened when a culture and economy is heavily interwoven with "The Good Thing"-Driven-Society. I know my parents, although with true care and conviction for my future, want me to work down the narrow and straight path for "The Good Thing", just like they do as middle class working americans (and damned fine ones, at that!). Fortunately, I look around and see things.

Some Brief Analysis (of course, this, as with all art, has different meanings to different people, even if the artist(s) weren't aware/conscious of certain meanings to be found when they created it. Also, I understand that when writing lyrics intended to convey a specific message, sometimes lyricists kind of make things fit at the expense of a certain sound or to make it flow nicely with the music. I think that is a good thing. Oh dear, I just used those two words. Anywho: David Byrne, master wordsmith, moving on):

"I will fight; will fight with my heart. I will fight; will fight with understanding. In my mind, the weather never changes Skill overcomes, unfavorable conditions."

This song has two central voices: The voice of the free-thinker and the voice(s) of the centralized economically entrenched workforce comprised of people in search of "The Good Thing". David conveys resisting the societal-cultural pressures to go down the straight line of "The Good Thing" by using his heart (Self-acceptance, knowing what he likes) and his understanding (of the bigger picture surrounding "The Good Thing", and his place relative to it as a free person). He displays poise in the face of "The Good Thing" argument by relying on personal skills and attributes as a solution to being unhappy as a worker, and the weather, or the entire situational comparison, never changes. It is one way or the other, with countless similar scenarios leading to the same thing.

"A straight line exists between me and the good things. I have found the line and its direction is known to me. Absolute trust keeps me going in the right direction. Any intrusion is met with a heart full of the good thing."

The voices of the masses. A living, breathing machine made of all the workers. Robots. Zombies. Substitute any brainless thing here. From the moment of birth, the straight line is laid out before us (government-founded, big surprise). It is impossible to go the wrong direction on the line towards a life of dreary work...as long as the worker ABSOLUTELY TRUSTS in the promise of "The Good Thing" (Which, I think, is really hard to avoid for a lot of people, especially when surrounded by fellow workers everywhere and without exposure to freedom devices, for example, art). Also, it is so true that challenging these types of people on this subject can get bring out some pretty deep emotional defense mechanisms.

"Try to compare what I am presenting. You will meet with much frustration. Try to find ... similar situation. You will always find the same solution."

David. The Freethinker puts it quite bluntly that the two separate life choices are infinitely different from one another, both in principle and in action (which is a result of the underlying principles altogether). No matter how many ways one might describe or defend the search for "The Good Thing", There is only one solution: Be free and do work that you like, recognize your own skills and abilities, and use them!

"As the heart finds the good thing, the feeling is multiplied. Add the will to the strength and it equals conviction. As we economise, efficiency is multiplied, To the extent I am determined the result is the good thing."

These people will never know the Real Good Thing. As years pass and days go by, endlessly working purely for economic happiness, the very search for "The Good Thing" itself makes feelings of justification and happiness all the more deeply entrenched. Conviction is faith with the ability to back it up (In this case, strength in numbers, both in population and in capital). Take it to the macro level of thousands upon thousands of workers all having similar lifestyles and goals, and they will, more than likely, become more efficient at propagating the lifestyle. Still, they are DETERMINED the result will be there for them in the end. Let's not even get started on social security!

"So I say: I have adopted this and made it my own: Cut back the weakness, reinforce what is strong."

This is my favorite part! The lyrics which aren't included on this site are great, too (Watch me work! Work work! Work work! Heavy Work! OHHHHHHH Work!). David manages to extract a positive note from all of this and turn it around on them...skills>unfavorable conditions, so know your own strengths and weaknesses, and work with what you've got!

CONCLUSION: "The Good Thing" is real. It is the same "Good Thing" that the workers are looking for, but you don't have to work forty years to find it..."The Good Thing" is not an end-game result, but, rather, an immediate benefit of being happy with one's self and understanding that, although you might not fit in to the bigger crowds, not following the straight line might just in fact be the smartest solution of them all.

~Galen