Say Anything – Fed To Death / I Could Be President
I know I’ve been repeatedly posting different Say Anything songs and lyrics and breaking down how they relate to Anarchy but I promise this is the last one. Fed To Death is a song about religion, or Jesus more specifically, and what we have reduced him to as a nation.
There was a man from Nazareth
the fools at war pervert.
They forged and image on his flesh
to brand on mugs and t-shirts.
the fools at war pervert.
They forged and image on his flesh
to brand on mugs and t-shirts.
Similar to what Mr. Pojman told us about tie dye shirts becoming a mere corporate advantage, here Max is talking about how we simply turned Jesus into something we could sell. I’m no bible expert but I don’t think they say really anything about his physical being – description wise – but we still found a way to make him more than metaphysical. “They forged an image of his flesh” is talking about the way we typically see him…a tall white man with a ragged beard, or writhing in pain with a head dripping in blood from a rose stemmed crown. We took this false image of what we perceived him to be and put it on “mugs and t-shirts” to sell. Someone somewhere realized that religion is powerful and that they could use that power to prosper financially. This is in correlation to Anarchist views of a corporate and Capitalist government.
In the song “I could be President” there isn’t much reference to Anarchist ideals except one – the way society has come to be so lazy and ignore the problems of our country with trite second guesses:
Was I born to sink into this couch
and watch my whole world
bleed its purpose out?
Around the insects follow patterns to their deaths
and watch my whole world
bleed its purpose out?
Around the insects follow patterns to their deaths
While I waste my precious breath
on another second guess
on another second guess
Max fears that he is falling into the same trap as other Americans by “sinking into the couch” and attempting to make no change in the way the world works. He also thinks that with this laziness the world is bleeding its purpose out whatever that purpose may be. Lastly he closes the verse by saying he wastes his precious breath on another second guess as in even if he were to try to do something good for the world he would be mired in second guesses.
- Randy Depfer
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