The Currents

I think it's pretty obvious that this song is about the things that politicians and people in the media have been saying in recent times, both in the UK (people like Nigel Farage) and in the US (Trump).

Particularly this portion of the song:

"How can you think you're serious? Do you even know what year it is? I can't believe the scary points you make Still living in the currents you create Still sinking in the pool of your mistakes Won't you stop firing up the crazies?

Oh my God, my God I can't quite believe my ears"

In the lead up to Brexit and the US election, controversial, racist and sexist things that politicians have been saying and doing have caused an atmosphere of tension. For example, in the UK, overt racism and xenophobia has become commonplace since certain political parties promoted the "Leave" campaign as a way to reduce immigration.

Race hate incidents that have occurred leading up to the EU referendum, what has been described as an “explosion of blatant hate”, has included:

• Gangs prowling the streets demanding passers-by prove they can speak English

• Swastikas in Armagh, Sheffield, Plymouth, Leicester, London and Glasgow.

• Assaults, arson attacks and dog excrement being thrown at doors or shoved through letter boxes of immigrants and racial minorities.

• Toddlers being racially abused alongside their mothers, with children involved as either victims or perpetrators in 14 per cent of incidents.

• A man in Glasgow ripping off a girl’s headscarf and telling her “Trash like you better start obeying the white man."

• Comparisons with 1930s Nazi Germany and a crowd striding through a London street chanting: “First we’ll get the Poles out, then the gays!”

Many people attribute this change in social climate to the public attitudes of some politicians and people in the media.

Perhaps they say "I can't believe my ears, I don't want to believe my ears" because the reports of incidents such as these and the things that influential people have said that encourage and incite them are reminiscent of the initial stages of the Nazi party's persecution of the Jews, gays, Romani, blacks etc.

Similarly with the US election coming up, both sexism and racism have been rearing their ugly heads. Black people assaulted at Trump rallies, people saying it's ok to treat women the way Trump does, Trump saying he wants to build a wall between the US and mexico, Trump saying he wants to ban muslims from entering the country.

I think that this is what Bastille mean when they say "Still living in the currents you create Still sinking in the pool of your mistakes Won't you stop firing up the crazies?"

The quote "When anybody preaches disunity, tries to pit one of us against the other. You know that person seeks to rob us of our freedom and destroy our very lives" is from a 1948 cartoon called "Make Mine Freedom!" which was Cold War Propaganda. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehDvnlyJPTA). I feel that Bastille is mocking the cartoon/what the american government was, and is still, promoting. The cartoon advocates for independent thought and questioning things that are too good to be true, while it is itself a piece of propaganda that is highly biased and deceptive in it's promotion of capitalism and the american dream.

It obviously, as Cold War propaganda, implies that the only alternative to Capitalism is Russia-Style Communism and big government. It therefore manages, as do our politicians, the tell us not to trust people who are telling us what we want to hear and promising us the world, while simultaneously asking us to trust them as they tell us what we want to hear and promise us the world.

I think this is spot on. Thanks a lot. I'm planning to use it with my Toulouse uni English class - I hope you don't mind.