P.C.P. Lyrics
As long as the right words are used
Systemised atrocity ignored
As long as bi-lingual signs on view
Ten foot sign in Oxford Street
Be pure - be vigilant - behave
Grey not neon, grey not real
Life bleeds, death is your birthright
P.C. she speaks impotent, sterile, naive, blind, atheist, sadist, stiff-upper lip, first principle of her silence, of her silence
PCP - a P.C. police victory
PCP - a P.C. pyrrhic victory
When I was young P.C. meant Police Constable
Nowadays I can't seem to tell the difference
Liposuction for your bad mouth boy
Cut out your tongue, effigies are sold
Words discoloured, bow to the bland
Heal yourself with sinner's salt
Doctors arrested for euthanasia
Kill smokers through blind vanity
If you're fat don't get ill
Europe's gravestone carved in plastic
P.C. she says inoculate, hallucinate, beware Shakespeare, bring fresh air, king cigarette snuffed out by her midgets, by her midgets
PCP - a P.C. police victory
PCP - a P.C. pyrrhic victory
When I was young P.C. meant Police Constable
Nowadays I can't seem to tell the difference
P.C. caresses bigots and big brother, read Leviticus
learnt censorship, pro-life equals anti-choice, to be scared of, of feathers
PCP - a P.C. police victory
PCP - a P.C. pyrrhic victory
When I was young P.C. meant Police Constable
Nowadays I can't seem to tell the difference
Lawyers before love, surrogate sex
This land bows down to
Yours, unconditional love and hate
Pass the Prozac, designer amnesiac
227 Lears and I can't remember the first line...
"Links PC PCP New Moral Certainty. Language aimed at the working class. Condemns the very people it aims to save. Self-censorship wrong. "Liviticus" used by homophobes to justify their hatred. To take one sentence from the bible to justify views very PC. Also PCP the Revolutionary Portuguese Communist." (Richey James; The Holy Bible-Tour Book)
"I think that's more than anything about the right to freedom of speech, and freedom of the media. Once the state gets control of that in a country, you know everything's fucked. That's the one thing that I think is really frightening about political correctness - the eradication of words. It's just so Orwellian - destroying words, changing dictionaries and changing the meaning of words. Obviously, PC as an idea is inherently good. So is socialism and so is communism, and they ended up being abused. A lot of PC followers take up the idea of being liberal, but end up being quite the opposite." (Nicky Wire; Melody Maker, 27 August 1994)
Political correctness. The twisting of words - 'pro-life' and 'anti-choice' are superb examples. Some quality lyrics here, fairly straight forward. 'Pyrrhic' is a poetic-meter featuring two unstressed syllables, hence a 'pyrrhic victory' would be the neutering of language, of emphasis.
@gsmith300 Wow, your interpretation of Pyrrhic as the poetic-meter is pretty cool. Especially the way you fit it into the song. However "Pyrrhic Victory" already has a common meaning: pyrrhic ˈpɪrɪk/ adjective (of a victory) won at too great a cost to have been worthwhile for the victor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhic_victory
@gsmith300 Wow, your interpretation of Pyrrhic as the poetic-meter is pretty cool. Especially the way you fit it into the song. However "Pyrrhic Victory" already has a common meaning: pyrrhic ˈpɪrɪk/ adjective (of a victory) won at too great a cost to have been worthwhile for the victor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhic_victory
to me this song is about political correctness and the fact that just because a person or a society is politically correct it means nothing... hense the opening lines. i think it bugs the band that as long as you're politically correct it's ok because you don't offend anyone yet when that person is not there they can be extremely 2 faced and arrogant
richeye is right. No Marxist (not that the Manics have been anything like that for a long, long time) would claim that state socialism is freedom, rather than freedom would exist when pure communism is established, and wage labour, nations and the state are abolished. However, Marx himself saw 'socialism' as being organised along the lines of the Paris commune, and certainly not like the USSR or China.
Still don't get the Lear thing though. The first line is: 'I thought the king had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.'
@Ad_Nauseam I think the point of the Lear reference is that once you've witnessed the death and destruction at the end of the play (when there are, like, only two people left alive) it's not surprising if you then fail to recall the court gossip and empty politicking at the beginning.
@Ad_Nauseam I think the point of the Lear reference is that once you've witnessed the death and destruction at the end of the play (when there are, like, only two people left alive) it's not surprising if you then fail to recall the court gossip and empty politicking at the beginning.
@Ad_Nauseam People wanted to censor Shakespeare with PC culture, it's a line that's literally in the song. The words in the soundbite refer to how the character can't remember the first lines just like no one will if everything will be destroyed with PC mindets.
@Ad_Nauseam People wanted to censor Shakespeare with PC culture, it's a line that's literally in the song. The words in the soundbite refer to how the character can't remember the first lines just like no one will if everything will be destroyed with PC mindets.
The line '227 Lears, and I can't remember the first line' is a quote from a film in the 80's called the dresser about an actor in the 40's who struggles to continue to act shakespeare in his theater group because of the London Blitz, the story kinda runs parallel to that of Shakepeare version of King Lear (it even has a 'fool').
The idea of the quote is in response to many people saying Shakespeare was not politically correct in the 80's and 90's therefore some of his plays should be altered to be more correct. This therefore would render the original plays (or to widen it out, pieces of art around the world) impotent. This ties in to the songs idea that political correctness while good, can be in many ways wrong, such as the idea as stated before that people are correct simply because the state says they have to be, but they wont be behind their backs, we're all guilty of it. However it also says that political correctness can go to far, like if a persons ethnic origin, culture and identity are disregarded and lost due to the country trying to hard to equalise people. It's a catch 22 :S
This song is how people try use language to lessen the impact of events. IE its no longer a genocide, its ethnic cleansing. By changing the wording, it gives things new context to make them sound more acceptable. The song sounds anti-pc because they believe that the use of PC words lessens the impact, and makes them seem less disturbing. Pro-life is just another way of saying anti choice is a good example. Instead of saying the decision to take away the womans right to chose whether she wants an abortion or not, its called pro-life which sounds far more positive. This song is condemnation for such things.
Does anyone know what the: 'Two hundred and twenty seven years, and I can't remember the first line(/nine?)' quote at the end is? It's on my 'Holy Bible 10th Anniversary' and I expect the original.
Apparently the "227 Lears, and I can't remember the first line" quote is from the 1983 film "The Dresser": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085461/
To me, this is a two finger salute to the PC bullshit. This is disturbing that it was this bad in 1993/1994, when today it's considerably worse, where you can't even take a shit without the masters knowing.
Is it pro or anti PC though? It's always been said that political correctness is the tool of the left and the manics are the biggest leftists you're likely to meet so it's quite cinfusing.
Irony is funny.
Irony is funny.
@my nothing It's anti-PC from a working-class socialist point of view. Like the dig at 'bilingual signs'; most working-class people in the part of Wales where the Manics are from are monolingual, and some see Welsh signage as a waste of taxpayers money (particularly since these are also areas of high unemployment and social deprivation). And political correctness, with its emphasis on learning and keeping up to date with 'acceptable' language, is in some respects just another way of shoring up the privilege of the educated middle-classes and silencing everybody else.
@my nothing It's anti-PC from a working-class socialist point of view. Like the dig at 'bilingual signs'; most working-class people in the part of Wales where the Manics are from are monolingual, and some see Welsh signage as a waste of taxpayers money (particularly since these are also areas of high unemployment and social deprivation). And political correctness, with its emphasis on learning and keeping up to date with 'acceptable' language, is in some respects just another way of shoring up the privilege of the educated middle-classes and silencing everybody else.