Have You Embraced the Beast?

XXXXX
1984.

Death squads and slaughter in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras… genocide against inconvenient indigenous peoples, murder of labor workers, missionaries, nuns, and priests — paid for, in large part, by US taxpayers with a wink and a nod from our government leaders and our legislators.

This song is not long on subtlety or craft, I’ll admit it.

What it has is no shortage of is corrosive, eat-your-guts-out anger… courtesy of yours truly. That’s pretty much how I walked around during the ’80s… a hard-tempered steel spring coiled tightly inside me, ready to snap. It was a time when the “loyal opposition” were gutless toadies… the spectacle of the Iran-Contra hearings is still burned into my mind.

The relentless covering up of ever-nastier, ever-more shameful secrets, greater crimes against the US Constitution, the US people, and the world, from the government of the popular Ronald Reagan, papered over by trepidatious Democrats…

For every Jack Brooks, there were ten Daniel Inouyes… seemingly ready and eager to pave the way for the presidency of GHW Bush just a few years later. The “investigation” was a disgrace almost as shameless as the offenses it investigated.

Anyhow… it still makes me mad.

HAVE YOU EMBRACED THE BEAST?

Have you embraced the beast?
I see the mark is on your face
Have you embraced the beast?
Are you a slave of greed and hate?

Have you embraced the beast?
Do you serve the war machine?
Have you embraced the beast?
Did you trade in your soul on (for) the finer things?

Have you embraced the beast?
Do your taxes buy bullets for fascist death squads?
Have you embraced the beast?
They’ll be coming to your hometown before too long . . .

Have you embraced the beast?
I see the mark is on your face
Have you embraced the beast?
Are you a slave of greed and hate?

Have you embraced the beast?

(C)1984, TK Major

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