Welcome to 2025.
Everywhere you look, cruelty and destruction, driven by ignorant wealthy madmen bent on bringing neo-feudalism into the modern era. They will try. They will die trying. The complexity of society and the world economic system has outstripped all attempts at imposing a monolithic political ideology.
Even in China, where a single (once-upon-a-time Communist) party controls all branches of government and employs a surveillance system which is currently the state of the art, even there dissent exists within the ranks and greed continues to infect the criminal elite who are only one or two killings away from toppling the system.
In Russia, the barbarian leader knows his days are numbered. He is desperate to succeed in a war which is costing so much that it is crippling his fiefdom. The Bratva boys (more than 6000 groups) are getting restless. Too many family members of the boss have gotten strategic posts in the upper echelons of the governing system. The family of the new Czar will never survive the next cleansing.
Everywhere you look in the West, in the East, the moguls are preparing for the end by building impenetrable shelters, by finding remote places to hide, by enlisting the services of condottieri to protect them from the masses they fear will come with pitchforks to make them pay for their greed. Their ignorance has caused them to overlook how the condottieri of old took over the wealth and power of their masters, and how history will repeat itself.
So, that’s where we are when 2025 begins.
But, once again, I’m not depressed or disillusioned to the extent that I see this all as hopeless. The rise and fall of empires has sped up considerably as the spiral of time gets narrower. An empire that some fools thought could last for 1000 years ended rather quickly, in May 1945, after only 12 years. Authoritarian leaders sometimes get asylum, but others suffer the indignity of dying with a camera recording their grisly end (Mussolini, Ceausescu, Qaddafi, Saddam, etc.).
History recycles them all into pulp or a stone head without a body.
***
I wrote this song a short while ago. It has never ceased to be relevant, and now its relevance is even greater, given the ascent of the Orange Menace and his pet muskrat in the Land of the Fee and Home of The Deal.
The State of the Art is available on your favorite streaming service:
https://listen.music-hub.com/Dgfd4o
The video is here:
https://youtu.be/Qa_B20BOLVA?si=i0KNH0Y6slYWwTRI
The State of the Art
I’ll dress you in a suit, put you on the stand
then tell you Hold this bible, now raise your right hand
swear to tell the truth I want to hear
Is your sister a whore? Is your brother a queer?
if you answer No you will go jail
your brother will be shot, your sister won’t make bail
justice will be served if you answer Yes
the penalty is death if they do or don’t confess
that’s the state of the art these days, that’s the state of the art
a lawless world for the power elite while we burn up in the heat
that’s the state of the art
excuse me, you’re a woman, you believe in equal rights
I’ll fly you up to Iceland, you can watch the northern lights
swim in a thermal lake, enjoy it while you can
cause you will never ever, ever get what I have as a man
freedom is expensive for us here at the top
logic and coherent reasoning must stop
the time value of money is the name of the game
profit is the motive, domination without shame
that’s the state of the art these days, that’s the state of the art
a lawless world for the power elite while we burn up in the heat
that’s the state of the art
the question is not If, we all know it’s When
and How much can I make between now and then?
apocalypse will be limited to the poor and the weak
not to those of us on this endless winning streak
my gold and diamond teeth, my smile on every screen
martyrs for the cause never to be seen
I’m a God on Olympus, worshiped from below
I lead the way and my slaves will follow
that’s the state of the art these days, that’s the state of the art
a lawless world for the power elite while we burn up in the heat
that’s the state of the art
money buys me lackeys who would love to be like me
they will slander and undermine civil society
sip the sweet Kool-Aid while they enjoy the ride
converting new believers to blissful suicide
FEAR is the headline, DANGER is the sign
nothing belongs to you, I bought it all, it’s all mine
the land, the sky, the oceans with every fish
every dream you might dream and every single wish
I will hold the whole wide world tight in my fist
give up already, it’s pointless to resist
I’ll have a job for everyone, in fact I’ll make it the law
work will set you free and you’ll get a bone to gnaw
that’s the state of the art these days, that’s the state of the art
a lawless world for the power elite while we burn up in the heat
that’s the state of the art