Lyrics
A step away from dangerA step away from graceWho could imagine the chaos in place?It's hard to leave the anger, harder to look awayMaybe those green eyes aren’t greener than grayNo solace in the manger, a thousand years awayJust turn these words into woes watch them ageAnd things are getting stranger, darker every dayReasons less reasoned if made to seem fakeI’m looking at all these peopletrying to figure it outI’m looking at one more picturejust to let it all outI wish I could save the world, oh honeyI wish I could save the worldI wish I could save the world, oh honeyI wish I could save the worldI wish I could save the worldI wish I didn’t have the needBitter water, don’t you hate the taste?Tainted water, where’s the haste?I wish I could save the worldI wish things had played out differentlyOnce: a tragedy; twice: a farceCan’t forsake what’s in my heartI’m looking at all these peopletrying to figure it outI’m looking at one more picturejust to let it all outI wish I could save the world, oh honeyI wish I could save the worldI wish I could save the worldBy Joshua T. Cukier & Peter B. KwitnyBehind the LyricsThis song is about worry and powerlessness and feeling small in the face of monumentalproblems. This song is about taking responsibility for our actions and recognizing that we all have a partto play in changemaking. This song, despite its repeating chordal structure, is everything other thanone-note, highlighting an intersectional approach to environmentalism.For instance, the line “No solace in the manger, a thousand years away” was written in reaction toMichigan Rep. Tim Walberg’s ludacris claim that God would take care of climate change if it was a realproblem. But Jesus “...in the manger, a thousands years away,” cannot fix the mess that we’ve made.Later, we make direct reference to the ongoing crisis in Flint, the environmental injustice which haspoisoned hundreds of thousands of people, disproportionately affecting minority communities. It’sdisheartening (to put it lightly) to see the lackluster response from government officials and the lack ofany hustle in helping out the city. There are still people suffering because of this and it began six yearsago.Given the topic, we felt it necessary to recognize the failures of Trump and the social atmospherethat he has fostered. We would watch Trump twist words every day, as communities across the countrywere suffering. It felt as though he was destroying the very reality of truth at times and his rhetoric eroded(and, sadly, continues to erode) public trust in reason. Trump reappears in the bridge, which leans on aquote from The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx, in which Marx writes, “Hegelremarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He hasforgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” In this quote, Marx isn’t claiming thathistory is necessarily cyclical, but it does critique the way in which historical figures can, in a sense, reachbeyond the grave. With Trump, this has been made clear time and time again. One exceptional example ofthis is Trump’s repetition of the phrase, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" originallypronounced by Police Chief Headley during the race riots of 1967.This song is a poetic synthesis of the politically dispiriting times in which we live, analyzing howfutile it feels to fight for sustainability, while political and societal magnums ignore us and continue togrow their carbon footprint. It’s our duty to save the world; we can’t just pass the baton to the next poorbastards like the generations before us.
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