I'd Rather

Disregard their suffering. spoon-fed fuck taught not to care.
It's easy for you to think everything is okay. this is ok?
I've never seen worse. they want what you have.
Flaunt your privilege. you will fall.
Do you really think your life is worth more?
You have no idea what it's like to live like that.
They'd love a minute to give you back that suffering.
This life, i don't need it. they want what you have.
Flaunt your privilege. you will fall.

I never promised you nothing,
Never said i'd be your perfect shackled slave.
If success to you is measured in dollars and cents then i decline.
That's nothing. that's not my dream.
It comes between everything.
Someday we'll divide because for so much effort some people starve.
They've got everybody working for something they could care less about.
That's nothing. that's not my dream.
It comes between everything.
Someday we'll divide. would somebody here fill my soul with purpose?
There's something here, my friend.
Don't step on me on your quest for millions.

Don't tell me that you say you care
While you're fucking sacrificing nothing.
Don't even mention the word oppression
While you're driving daddy's jaguar.
Our prosperity is their death.
Pat us on the back, third world wallets gone.
There's blood on our hands,
It's your choice if you want to see it or not.
It could change. it comes down to you. oppression is in your pocket.
It's all personal, it's not enough to cry.
This time you can start by cooking your flag.
You can stop doing what you're told.
Don't believe what you see on tv.
Cnn reporters, they're all ex-generals.
Democracy, big fucking joke. it's just one big capitalist enterprise.
Smaller countries, they have no hope.
Usa crushes self-government.
It's your choice, you could help to limit your contribution by restraint.
It could change. it comes down to you. oppression is in your pocket.
It's all personal, its not enough to cry.
This time... you can start by leaving the line.
You can stop doing what you're told,
Because today freedom is bought and sold. bought & sold.

This isn't business, its our hope and its our voice.
You're not a product, so tell them you can't be bought.
I don't want corporate backing, five hundred thousand bucks a year,
That's not what it's about. it's something so much more. more than money.
Dissent rolled into words, they don't belong here.
Do you really think they care?
This music belongs to us, it's finally something we control.
I won't let it get torn away. it won't be torn away.
What's the message sent when your actions contradict your words?
I don't want to play, you can keep your quarter.
I'll have no part. i won't stay in line or keep in order.
Yeah, you know what it means.
Hey, mr. superstar do you really believe we think you care?
You think you're saying something? you're saying fucking nothing.
Your message is killed by the paycheck in your hand.
It's already hard at work as your capitalist machine destroys.
What's the message sent when your actions contradict your words?
I don't want to play, you can keep your quarter.
I'll have no part. i won't stay in line or keep in order.
You don't know what it means.
To me the message is the most important thing.
Communication is more important than entertainment.
This music saved my life,
So i'll be dead and fucking gone before it's bought and sold
Just like appliances and cars.

The best thing i ever saw on tv
Was that s.q. (securite quebec) cop catching a bullet with his teeth.
Condolence, mme. canadiana, but your husband was a fucking (stuck) pig.
But this song's not about some romantic account of history.
It's not about martyrs or mythos or heroes or burnings-in-effigy.
It's about a native kid flipping her lid
Just trying to keep some self-respect intact.
It's about an oka the size of a fist in resistance
And a will to fight back...
And the girls at work, they still deny their racism.
They claim tolerance for all.
But it seems the degree of (only) racial slurs
Is their gauge (and it defines tolerance as hate).
And there's 27 million "girls-at-work" here.
Imagine fighting that for 500 years.
And golly-gee! how valient!
How the white oppressor makes allowance
For calculated gestures of insurgence
(all tightly tethered to their purses/purpose).
Oka had this orchestra(tion) aborted.
Oka fucked their rules to choose a future self-determined
And i, for one, support it...
...and the smartest thing i think i ever said:
"if a kevin kostner kavalry is your means to their end,
Then the struggle is dead".
Why do we pretend that our approval is upon what they depend?