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Happiness Is A Side Effect Of Meaning | Proudly Made in the USA

Happiness is a Side Effect of Meaning | Proudly Made in the USA

Happiness is a Side Effect of Meaning | Proudly Made in the USA

It's a beautiful day to be alive here at the peak of recorded human history

GO FORTH AND BE MIGHTY!

Lyrics

I'm sorry, I don't want to be an emperor
That's not my business
I don't want to rule or conquer anyone
I should like to help everyone, if possible
Jew, Gentile, Black man, White
We all want to help one another
Human beings are like that
We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery
We don't want to hate and despise one another
In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich
And can provide for everyone
The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way
Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate
Has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed
We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in
Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want
Our knowledge has made us cynical
Our cleverness, hard and unkind
We think too much and feel too little
More than machinery we need humanity
More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness
Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together
The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men
Cries out for universal brotherhood, for the unity of us all
Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people

To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress
The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people
And so long as men die
Liberty will never perish
Soldiers, don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think, or what to feel!
Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder
Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men with machine minds and machine hearts!
You are not machines!
You are not cattle!
You are men!
You have the love of humanity in your hearts
You don't hate, only the unloved hate
The unloved and the unnatural
Soldiers, don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty! In the 17th Chapter of St. Luke it is written, the Kingdom of God is within man
Not one man nor a group of men, but in all men, in you!
You, the people have the power
The power to create machines
The power to create happiness
You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure

Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power
Let us all unite!

Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security
By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power
But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise, they never will!
Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people!
Now let us fight to fulfill that promise!
Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance
Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness

Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!
Do you mind what happens not?
I don't care what happens
I don't care is
It's dismissive
It's a loving indifference, a benevolent indifference as Pontius used to say
It's not an indifference that is cold
Because awareness is not an aloof, separate witness of experience locked up in an ivory tower of indifference
It is intimately one with all experience, so intimacy is its loving aspect
It doesn't know the meaning of the word resistance or rejection so it is intimately one with
And at the same time free of all experience
So it is both loving
And indifferent
So it is both loving
And indifferent
So it is not a cold indifference
It is a loving indifference

[Chorus]
Loving indifference
We're speaking about awareness
Loving indifference
There is a meaning to the words true and thoughts
Right and wrong
Loving indifference
We're speaking about awareness
Loving indifference
The qualities that are inherent in our true nature

We're speaking about awareness, awareness, awareness
We talk about mind
That's a different matter
Because mind's experience is always divided into polarities
Good and bad, right and wrong, true and false
And at the level of mind those categories are valid
They don't pertain to consciousness
Consciousness doesn't know the difference between good and bad, there is no good or bad or right or wrong
But when consciousness assumes the form of mind
It divides itself
Into two and at that level there are differences, there are distinctions, and there is a meaning to the words

[Chorus]
Loving indifference
We're speaking about awareness
Loving indifference
There is a meaning to the words true and thoughts
Right and wrong
Loving indifference
We're speaking about awareness
Loving indifference
The qualities that are inherent in our true nature

So in terms of ethic
What is right and what is wrong
I would suggest what is right at the level of the mind is behavior that expresses
The qualities that are inherent in our true nature

Another name for awareness is love
So behavior that is loving is an expression of the inherent quality of our true nature
The inherent quality of our true nature

[Chorus]
Loving indifference
We're speaking about awareness
Loving indifference
There is a meaning to the words true and thoughts
Right and wrong
Loving indifference
We're speaking about awareness
Loving indifference
The qualities that are inherent in our true nature

Cruel or unkind
Unjust, unloving behavior are behaviors that
Whilst they come originally from awareness, there's no else they could come from, they are filtered through the belief in separation and as they are filtered through separation they are perverted – or distorted
So hatred, for instance, is love distorted by the sense of separation
So hatred, for instance, is love more distorted by the sense of separation
I don’t mind the denunciations frankly
I mind the lies
Well, I mean intellectuals are very good at lying
They’re professionals at it
They have wonderful technique
There’s no way of responding to it
If somebody calls you, you know, an antisemite
What can you say?
“I’m not an antisemite?”
Somebody says you’re, you’re a racist, you’re Nazi or something this
You always lose
I mean
The person who throws the mud always wins
Because there’s no way of responding to such charges

[Chorus]
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech

I do not think that the state ought to have the right to determine historical truths
And to punish people who deviate from them
I’m not willing to give the state that right
Even if they happen to fall
“Are you denying that gas chambers ever…”
Course not
But I’m saying if you believe in freedom of speech
You believe in freedom of speech for views you don’t like
I mean, Goebbels was in favor of freedom of speech for views he liked
Right?
So was Stalin
If you’re in favor of freedom of speech
That means you’re in favor of freedom of speech
Precisely for views, you despise
Otherwise, you’re not in favor of freedom of speech
Otherwise, you’re not in favor of freedom of speech
There’s two positions you can have on freedom of speech
And you can decide which position you want

[Chorus]
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech

With regard to my defense of
The utterly offensive
The people who express utterly offensive views
I haven’t the slightest doubt that every commissar says
"You’re defending that person’s views"
No, I’m not
No, I'm not
I’m defending his right to express them
And the difference is crucial
And the difference has been understood
Outside of fascist circles
Since the 18th century

If you’re in favor of freedom of speech
That means you’re in favor of freedom of speech
Precisely for views, you despise
Otherwise, you’re not in favor of freedom of speech
And you can decide which position you want

[Chorus]
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech

Freedom of speech
You’re in favor of freedom of speech
That means precisely for views you despise
Freedom of speech
Otherwise you’re not in favor of freedom of speech
Otherwise you’re not in favor of freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
You’re in favor of freedom of speech
That means precisely for views you despise
Freedom of speech
Otherwise you’re not in favor of freedom of speech
And you can decide which position you want

The language you use has meaning!
The language you use has meaning!
That’s right
The language you use has meaning!
The language you use has meaning!
That’s right
That’s right
I find like, I have some beliefs that are too inflammatory to even discuss
Unfortunately

[Chorus]
Because there are certain things in society, that you're not allowed to believe
Or speak publicly
And so I'll just never say them
And I'll just leave them in my little head
Because there are certain things in society, that you're not allowed to believe
Or speak publicly
And so I'll just never say them
And I'll just leave them in my little head

But mostly I find all these things ridiculous
First of all, I hate that we force people into identifying themselves by little, tiny, uh...
Because we oppress people we further oppress them by forcing them to identify themselves as
What I consider less than human
So if someone says, "I am proud to be Black." I go, that's too bad for that guy 'cause it's a retarded thing to be proud of
We see it with White power, if someone says, I'm proud to be White we see how ridiculous that sounds
But we don't see it when a person says because they've been oppressed I'm proud to be Black
But it is ridiculous, we've pushed them into a corner where now they're going to spend their whole life identifying themselves
By the pigment of their skin
Which is a sad waste of life
Or if you say, "I'm proud to be gay. That's what I am and that's how I'll live my life."
Oh boy, you're really limiting yourself there and it's too bad and I know you've been forced into it
By being pushed down and oppressed, but it's still very, very sad
And I don't think of myself as Canadian
And I think it's a terrible thing to say you're proud to be a Canadian or proud to be an American
All that stuff is nonsense
You may as well be proud to have lungs
You didn't accomplish nothing
You were just born somewhere or, you know, you were just born with a skin that's a certain color
Or born with a sexual attraction to a certain type of person. That stuff's all
It's all just little, miniature things in life that are so unimportant
And when people try to tell me that God is not important
But that this nonsense is important
I couldn't disagree more

[Chorus]
Because there are certain things in society, that you're not allowed to believe
Or speak publicly
And so I'll just never say them
And I'll just leave them in my little head
Because there are certain things in society, that you're not allowed to believe
Or speak publicly
And so I'll just never say them
And I'll just leave them in my little head

[Outro]
There are certain things in society, that you're not allowed to believe
Or speak publicly
And so I'll just never say them
And I'll just leave them in my little head
There are certain things in society, that you're not allowed to believe
Or speak publicly
And so I'll just never say them
And I'll just leave them in my little head
Because I’m talking with the person who gave us the A and B Game, Blue Church, Jordan Hall, and part of that is this idea which is a religion that's not a religion and coming – trying to come up with a post religious faith
Because here is the idea, this is probably in some ways my most radical idea
I wanna do what like Augustine did as the Roman Empire is falling
He laid the foundation
He laid the cultural cognitive grammar for an entirely different culture and they stole the culture bottom-up
He laid the cultural cognitive grammar for an entirely different culture and they stole the culture bottom-up

[Chorus]
I wanna help steal the culture – away
Steal it away
Steal it away
I wanna help steal the culture – away
Steal it away
Steal it away
And do everything I can
(And I can)
Do everything I can
(And I can)
I wanna help steal the culture – away
Steal it away
Steal it away

From the imperial system
The imperial system at some point then clamped down again
But nevertheless, we shifted
We shifted out of antiquity
We shifted to a different world
So I want to try and do that
I want to try and create that systems of meaning, the religion that is not a religion, the ecologies of practices, the communities, the networks of communities
All of this, it's already happening
We really empower it both in terms of its grammar
Give it the best scientific tools for engineering the practices and the ecology of practices
I basically wanna steal the culture

[Chorus]
I wanna help steal the culture – away
Steal it away
Steal it away
I wanna help steal the culture – away
Steal it away
Steal it away
And do everything I can
(And I can)
Do everything I can
(And I can)
I wanna help steal the culture – away
Steal it away
Steal it away

From the people who have been abusing us for such a very long time
And I usually don't speak politically 'cause I think the political framing is often a deep misrepresentation of the issue
At least the way in which political discourse has been sort of been ossified, sort of been ossified in ways make choice, no longer really relevant
And you know Christianity stole the culture away from the elites, it's time
Now new elites form, they always will but the culture changed and it changed in an important way and that's what I'm trying to do right now
That's what I see myself doing with a lot of these other people
That's what I'm trying to do right now
That's what I see myself doing with a lot of these other people

[Chorus]
I wanna help steal the culture – away
Steal it away
Steal it away
I wanna help steal the culture – away
Steal it away
Steal it away
And do everything I can
(And I can)
Do everything I can
(And I can)
I wanna help steal the culture – away
Steal it away
Steal it away

[Bridge]
Steal it away, steal it away, steal it away
Now
Steal it away, steal it away, steal it away
Hey
Steal it away, steal it away, steal it away
Now
Steal it away, steal it away, steal it away
Hey
Steal it away, steal it away, steal it away
Now
Steal it away, steal it away, steal it away
Hey
Steal it away, steal it away, steal it away
Now
Steal it away, steal it away, steal it away
Hey

And the whole point about the metaphor is we can't, we can't win by playing the game (Their game)
That's right
My way of trying to understand what it is to not play their game and to shift over to, into a totally different game
To shift the culture, it's to steal the culture
The only thing I could get from history that's been able to do that are religion
But for reasons I've articulated, I don't want
And it’s not personally, I mean in terms of the functionality, I don't think the standard model, the axial age model of religion is going to do what we need in order to steal the culture as deeply as we need to steal it

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