"waitin' for the Rapture like it's Disneyland"
A while back I mentioned a second-generation folk singer from Texas named Eliza Gilkyson whose satirical tune "Hiway 9" had been on the local public radio one night, right when all the news about the Halliburton trucks running back and forth empty in some of the more bizarrely-egregious bits of profiteering going on had recently broken, and there was still some hope of dislodging the cabal via the democratic route in 2004.
This past weekend I heard another one, "Man of God", from her new CD, which has the same reclaiming of gospel tropes and turning them back on the sanctimonious and complacent; but this one doesn't have the light satiric touch of the earlier, it's just relentless.
The cowboy came from out of the West
with his snakeskin boots and his bulletproof vest,
gang of goons and his big war chest--
Fortunate son, he was doubly blessed--
corporate cronies and the chiefs of staff
bowin' to the image of the golden calf,
startin' up wars in the name of God's son,
gonna blow us all the way to kingdom come--
Man of God, man of God,
that ain't the teachings of a man of God,
man of God, man of God,
that ain't the preachings of a man of God.
Coalition of the willing and the judgmental
patricians, politicians, and the fundamentalists
You never have to tell them how the money's spent,
you never have to tell them where their freedom went--
Homophobes in the high command
waitin' for the Rapture like it's Disneyland--
hide all the bodies from out of view,
channel all the treasure to the chosen few--
Man of God, man of God,
that ain't the teachings of a man of God,
man of God, man of God,
that ain't the preachings of a man of God.
If I could I surely would
stand on the rock where Moses stood:
Look out people, now we're gonna get fleeced
by a wolf masquerading as a man of peace
Jesus said blessed are the meek,
Jesus said you gotta turn the other cheek,
Jesus said help the poor and the weak--
if he lived today he'd be a liberal freak--
all the money changers would be out on the street
weepin and wailin and gnashin their teeth.
Me, I'm waitin on the reckoning day
when the whole world's gonna rise up and say:
Man of God, man of God,
that ain't the teachings of a man of God,
man of God, man of God,
that ain't the preachings of a man of God
Now, I don't know that I buy Rice's use of "birth pangs" as necessarily being coded theocrat talk - unlike "Dred Scott decision", which was unequivocal - because the expression is generic enough that it could have been used innocently (patronizingly yes, but not as inner-circle Apocalyptic Moron-speak) although it certainly could be that way. Rice is, after all, a former chief minion of the oil barons. I say it's something worse, really: that there is a complete fusion of the memes of triumphalist Christianity with the secular plutocratic sphere, even when those plutocrats have no real faith in the divine, so that they believe that they are, via the implementation of the PNAC plan, making "the new heaven and the new earth" themselves. That it just coincidentally happens to line their pockets - well, that's a sign that they're Worthy of the task.
IOW, do they really believe that Jesus or St. Michael will come down on an actual white horse with an actual flaming sword to fight Gog and Magog (whoever they may be) for them if they just do enough magic rituals of invocation, the inner circles of leadership in Mordor-on-the-Potomac? No. They're too much behind the curtain, too much men of the world. But the imagery of Apocalypse resonates with them, and poetically they almost certainly feel that they are embodying the mythic archetypes on an earthly level, based on my past life's experience with Heritage Foundation political/military flacks and how they cast both the US vs Russia in a mystical template, and also the coming New Crusades to avenge Kosovo of the Blackbirds and Constantinople, back in the late 70s and 80s. If the more naif among their followers take it literally, no harm done: they're serving the Cause well, and understanding according to their abilities. It's all very gnostic.
--And probably just like the original attempts at Outremer, too. Nothing changes.
This past weekend I heard another one, "Man of God", from her new CD, which has the same reclaiming of gospel tropes and turning them back on the sanctimonious and complacent; but this one doesn't have the light satiric touch of the earlier, it's just relentless.
The cowboy came from out of the West
with his snakeskin boots and his bulletproof vest,
gang of goons and his big war chest--
Fortunate son, he was doubly blessed--
corporate cronies and the chiefs of staff
bowin' to the image of the golden calf,
startin' up wars in the name of God's son,
gonna blow us all the way to kingdom come--
Man of God, man of God,
that ain't the teachings of a man of God,
man of God, man of God,
that ain't the preachings of a man of God.
Coalition of the willing and the judgmental
patricians, politicians, and the fundamentalists
You never have to tell them how the money's spent,
you never have to tell them where their freedom went--
Homophobes in the high command
waitin' for the Rapture like it's Disneyland--
hide all the bodies from out of view,
channel all the treasure to the chosen few--
Man of God, man of God,
that ain't the teachings of a man of God,
man of God, man of God,
that ain't the preachings of a man of God.
If I could I surely would
stand on the rock where Moses stood:
Look out people, now we're gonna get fleeced
by a wolf masquerading as a man of peace
Jesus said blessed are the meek,
Jesus said you gotta turn the other cheek,
Jesus said help the poor and the weak--
if he lived today he'd be a liberal freak--
all the money changers would be out on the street
weepin and wailin and gnashin their teeth.
Me, I'm waitin on the reckoning day
when the whole world's gonna rise up and say:
Man of God, man of God,
that ain't the teachings of a man of God,
man of God, man of God,
that ain't the preachings of a man of God
Now, I don't know that I buy Rice's use of "birth pangs" as necessarily being coded theocrat talk - unlike "Dred Scott decision", which was unequivocal - because the expression is generic enough that it could have been used innocently (patronizingly yes, but not as inner-circle Apocalyptic Moron-speak) although it certainly could be that way. Rice is, after all, a former chief minion of the oil barons. I say it's something worse, really: that there is a complete fusion of the memes of triumphalist Christianity with the secular plutocratic sphere, even when those plutocrats have no real faith in the divine, so that they believe that they are, via the implementation of the PNAC plan, making "the new heaven and the new earth" themselves. That it just coincidentally happens to line their pockets - well, that's a sign that they're Worthy of the task.
IOW, do they really believe that Jesus or St. Michael will come down on an actual white horse with an actual flaming sword to fight Gog and Magog (whoever they may be) for them if they just do enough magic rituals of invocation, the inner circles of leadership in Mordor-on-the-Potomac? No. They're too much behind the curtain, too much men of the world. But the imagery of Apocalypse resonates with them, and poetically they almost certainly feel that they are embodying the mythic archetypes on an earthly level, based on my past life's experience with Heritage Foundation political/military flacks and how they cast both the US vs Russia in a mystical template, and also the coming New Crusades to avenge Kosovo of the Blackbirds and Constantinople, back in the late 70s and 80s. If the more naif among their followers take it literally, no harm done: they're serving the Cause well, and understanding according to their abilities. It's all very gnostic.
--And probably just like the original attempts at Outremer, too. Nothing changes.