Radio's Question and Roger Waters

I'm not sure of the ages and musical tastes of everyone out there, so forgive the somewhat protracted nature of the introduction.

Radio over at Radio's Preparedness Subculture Blog put up a post earlier today that I missed.

I was trying to figure out what music I wanted to update the jukebox with when I saw his post, "Lessons From The Sandbox".

Everything kind of just jelled as I looked at the pictures of the kids in his post.

I'm sure there are some folks out there who recognize the name Roger Waters. If you don't he was one of the creative geniuses behind Pink Floyd.

In 1985, Roger split from Pink Floyd. In 1987 he released an album called "Radio KAOS" The album is a series of songs telling the story of Billy, a kid confined to a wheelchair. Click on the link to Radio KAOS to read a summary of the events that take place in the album.

The song I put up in the jukebox is called "Home". ( Lyrics here if you have difficulty understanding what Roger is singing. ) If you choose to listen to it, please be aware that there are some words that some people will object to. Waters uses some derogatory terms for certain ethnic and racial groups.

This song provokes a certain resonance within me. The stridency of Waters' singing voice and the urgency and anger just elicits a deep, visceral, gut reaction. It's been 22 years since this song was written, and yet the tone and theoretical events in it are just as valid today.

Freedom. Someone once said the best cage is the illusion of freedom. I wish I knew who it was so I could give them credit, because it is so true. All of us here in blogdom write and thrash about musing on freedom. We all recognize the cage we're in, and the chains that have been forged to bind us to our masters.

You and I, just about everyone out there, are some form of chattel to the corporatocracy that has infected our world. Some of us are outright slaves, some bonded in debt, some just because of a piece of paper that they signed, others of us are wage-slaves.

The fact is, as chattel, we're expendable. We can be written off as an expense. They've written off so many people around the world to increase their profits that it is only a matter of time until they get around to us. Men, women, children, each of their bleached skulls a penny in the pocket of the masters in the corporatocracy.

But isn't that what is happening today here in this land? People losing their jobs, homes, families while the masters sit in their leather chairs in air conditioned rooms eating their catered meals, methodically plotting where the next chunk of profit will come from. How long until they decide that armed conflict needs to come to these shores in order for them to make next quarter's numbers? How long until they pit their endless waves of lap dogs against those few of us who still have teeth and claws and a taste for freedom? How long until the corporatocracy turns in on itself spilling its foetid stench and rotting flesh across this land? Cannibalizing itself as one corporate faction turns on another when the ever thinning stream of profit dries to a trickle?

"Home" asks a very similar question to what Radio asked in his blog. "What will you do?".

Listen to the song, think about it, and jump on over to Radio's place and answer his question. You can always leave your thoughts here too.