The Dangerous Doctrine Of Empathy

This is a song for the average American.

Let go of your realities

(middle class small town mentalities):

The truths - your truths -

That even now dominate your little world.

There are lives, and hopes, and dreams -

Other breathing human beings

Whose existence you ignore

With "harmless" jokes, and words, and more,

But you say that it's their choice,

As if that makes it all okay.

Well it's not okay.

Our nation's choking on apathy.

They wage a war you never had to declare

And sacrifice with their blood, love, and tears.

You've not the mind

To see the world through their eyes.

Your true colors show.

You don't fucking care.

You talk of world communities,

Oblivious to what that really means:

That you, yes, you,

Truly have the biggest part in this to play.

The ideals you so praise rest on one contingency:

You find some untapped empathy.

You've not the time to see the hurt in their eyes.

You don't even know.

Well I fucking care.

We proclaim greatness

And drown the logic that informs us

That "greatest" does not necessarily

Entail adequate or sufficient,

And this vocabulary reinforces our lethargy

By implying that improvement

Is a relic of the past.

Freedoms are not guaranteed in preserved ink,

But realized in the everyday relationships of a community.

Hope screams out for life

In the vein of choice

And each to his own.

I am disgusted by your blatant lack of care

For your fellow human beings

Suffering because of you,

And I don't blame you for who you are,

But for not attempting

To try to change yourself this day.

This is my truth of your liberty:

The dangerous doctrine of empathy.

This is a song for the average American

On who our future now rests upon,

And I fucking care.