Turned

"Caught, in the undertow of today,
you start to drift away
got no place left to stay.
Turned, from that which you have known,
to that which you've been shown
your world's no longer your own.
Listen, when their words come out,
don't know what they're about
but you follow 'cause they shout.

You can't tell right from wrong,
you don't know what's going on,
You can't see wrong from right,
all you see is black and white.

March, just another face in the crowd,
you chant their "truths" out loud
while you wrap your mind in a shroud.
Raise, your hand up in a fist,
and yell about what you've missed
you're told it's time to resist.

You can't tell right from wrong,
you don't know what's going on,
You can't see wrong from right,
all you see is black and white.

Lift, their flag high in the air,
convinced that you are there
to fight for your fair share.
Darkness, creeps up on our fair land,
you grasp it with your hand
it's all you understand..."

For almost a decade now, we've been told that Islamic terrorism is the great threat to Western society, when in reality the real existential threat, as demonstrated before 9/11 in Oklahoma City, and this past weekend in Norway, and every day in between through the increasing rightist political radicalization of larger and larger segments of our society, comes from right wing extremists, just as it did in the 1920s and 1930s. Yes, there is a link between those horrible, violent attacks, and the rhetoric of the right wing politicians and demagogues - it's important to always understand that the foot soldiers carry guns, but the real right wing terrorists wear business suits.

Paul Kimball