Forty million refugees With no place on this earth to call their home One for every aimless graduate With nothing else to show for it but loans
And those of us who make our mark Use someone else's blood Our western stain won't wash away It won't vanish in the flood
It seeps deeper through each hurricane And tidal wave and war Oh, woah, oh, oh, we want everything we see And once it's gone we just want more
Atlas had those shoulders We've got Ambien And Jameson's and blow To bind us in a bubble
And keep the newsprint nightmare Distant and remote But when we wake in guiltiness And pitch our screaming fits When the governor strikes up the band And gags our parted lips
When the worst case shows up Dressed and dazzling ready for the ball Oh, woah, oh, oh, but that bubbles bound to burst And what a tragic way to fall
The tabloids tell us hate the rat Who strikes those subways closed and put's you out Forget those fifty hour tunnel weeks Inhaling steel dust poison through his mouth
Well if he don't deserve a pension That makes his family feel secure If we're now so disconnected It's our reflections we ignore
And if our constant choice is skimming Past the writing on the wall Oh, woah, oh, oh, then I'm sad to say we're lost And I'm embarrassed for us all
So most days I can't put to rest The burning city smoking in my mind And I play and pretend The principles are nothin' more Than actors runnin' lines
And I stumble through a movie set Where tortured victims laugh And embedded journalists Who juggle knives and daggered glass
While they entertain a mob of heads Of state and CEO's Oh, woah, oh, oh, I stagger past anarchist extras Through saloon doors painted gold
So I turn and I see Uncle Sam Outside a wardrobe ready for a shoot So I walk right up and talk to him I tell him that I'm scared and I'm confused
And while they test the cameras out And get the lighting right While the catering fills coffee cups And carves up apple pie
And while the stylists trim his beard And straighten those lapels Oh, woah, oh, oh, I ask his empires What made him drive us straight to hell?
And as my daydream ends, he stands ashamed A shocked and shattered shell But there's never any answer For my starving tongue to tell
Woah, oh, oh, oh 'Cause the director shouted action And from offset it's just as well