You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train

Governments lie all the time well
Not just the American
Government, it's just in the
Nature of governments well, they have
To lie and since they
Don't represent the people, and so
Since they act against the
Interest of the people
The only way they can hold power is
If they lie to the people

You don't know what I know
You can't see the spreading
Stain of deception i am cruel to myself
Things will never be the same

If they told people the truth
They wouldn't last very long

I will hold my silence
Like a weapon in my hand
If I used it I would murder myself
You could never understand

Columbus came ashore
Greeted with nothin' but niceness
Sailin' west in attempt to
Find gold and spices
Dominated by the popes in frenzy for ices
The Catholic church expelled Jews and
Claimed it was righteous
The first man to see land would get a reward
And get a yearly pension for life
Clearly from God
A young sailor saw land, said
"We isn't far!" columbus lied
Said he saw it the evening before
They touched ground
They were greeted by the Arawak
Columbus had them locked up as
Prisoners in an hour flat
He wanted to find their source of
Gold and that was that
And when they thought that wasn't fair
Then he stabbed their back
When there was no more gold
He took slaves instead
And left a quarter million
Indians in Haiti dead
The men died in mines, the women died at work
The children died from lack of milk
And they died in the dirt
They were just takin' advantage
Of a passive people
They were just bein' the
Savages of massive evil
That's the church work
That's the path of massive ego
That's the blood of Abraham bein'
Stabbed by the steeple

In 1619 they were patiently waitin'
For a ship that carried slaves
That was changin' the nation
The white man was a cannibal
Prayin' to Satan
Hatred, contempt, a pity of patronization
That's the cornerstone of everything
Racism based in
The African had a more advanced civilization
Black was slave, master was white
Rationalization fifty million dead
That's Western civilization
At first they appeared in the north
And they were helpless in the
Face of superior force
And all of them were chained together
They really was lost
Racism isn't natural, it's merely divorce
Before the slave trade
Black was considered distasteful
By the Oxford dictionary
I find it disgraceful
It's not a natural tendency to
Be bitter and hateful
It's the natural enemy of
The critical staple
Slavery grew as the plantation system grew
The reason for that's kinda easily traceable
Society of helpless dependence was capable
Of saying, "Fuck a slave master! You're
In slavery too!"

Seven slaves were put to
Death for murderin' Master
Fear of slave revolt had
Them developin' faster
You a Cataline killer, ineloquent bastard
I would burn the white man
While smellin' the ashes from time to time
White man was part of the resistance
White indentured servants wanted no
Part of the system
King Philip's War showed that
If people would listen
Then they can maybe break the
Complex chain of oppression
Tyranny is tyranny, but that's a concession
But the women
They was treated like that of possessions
Black women had it worse
'cause they was abused
That's the white justification
The Aryan blues
The next move was to dominate the Mexicans
James Polk dominated them like they
Was next of kin
He sent Colonel Cross to lie to
Them and let them in
Eleven days later his skull was crushed
So message sent
"We take nothing by conquest"
That was the mantra
The military wasn't human
They was just monsters
Henry David Thoreau refused to pay his taxes
Denounced the Mexican War and
Got locked in shackles

The twentieth century opened
Anger re-emerged
Reality of ordinary life was bein' heard
Anarchists and feminists came
From factory work
Communism, socialism, seemed to be re-birthed
"War is the health of the
State" is what Bourne said
And if you was born around that time
You was born dead
The Espionage Act had people confused
'Cause it was double talk
And they ain't know how it'd be used
Supposedly it was an act against spyin'
Dubois knew that that was bullshit
And they was lyin'
Charles Schenck was arrested in Philadelphia
For printin' and distributin'
Leaflets 'cause they was helpin' ya
He was indicted, tried and then found guilty
And spent six months in jail
Don't that sound silly?
Had his freedom taken away by his own nation
But there's a lesson
Do not submit to intimidation
The act still exists today and
This shit is real
Supposedly, Kennedy tried to have
That shit appealed
Eugene Debs did ten years for no purpose
He obstructed the recruiting
And enlistment service

The post office started
Takin' mail privileges
Of magazines who printed anti-war sentiments
A Socialist named Fairchild had it right
He said that, "They can shoot me
But they can't make me fight!"
They sentenced him to a year in
Jail and that was reckless
Sixty-five thousand men
Conscientious objectors
They were sent to army bases to work there
They were treated sadistically and
Were hurt there
They were strangled with the hemp
Rope till they collapsed
And officers punched they stomach
And they lower back
A garden hose was placed on
They face with a nozzle
About six inches from them
So they couldn't swallow
The war ended in nineteen
Hundred and eighteen
The government was just tryin' to
Wipe the slate clean
Hemingway wrote 'Farewell to Arms'
Dalton Trumbo wrote 'Johnny Got His Gun'
The war was over
But they didn't learn they lesson
Twin tactics of control
Reform and repression
The patriotic fervor of war had been invoked
That's why the country that you live
In is a fuckin' joke!

You cannot be neutral on a moving train
This is a story about the lies
That your teacher told you
This is real, actual, factual
No lies in the whole record
If you don't believe me, look it up!
I'm tryin' to share the shit
That I learned with y'all do the knowledge!
Your government does not care about you
The people in power do not care about you
Understand that! Power to the people!

War is like a fix you know
You get high on war "We won! We won!" and
Then you look down on the ground again
And you need another fix
You need another war why do you think
We've had war after war after
War after war? Every war, they say: "This
Is the end this is the last
War" In World War I, they
Said: "This is the war to
End all wars" And then, not long
After that, was World War I I and
Then soon the United States
Was waging war in Korea, and then
Vietnam if you study history
What you learn is that
Wars are always accompanied
By lies wars are always
Accompanied by deception