Everything Can Change

First you have to have a problem
That part isn’t hard
The second step is everybody realizing
They’re like you — they’re holding the same card
Step three is finding there’s a tactic
When everyone believes it could be true
That if all the people work collectively
There just might be something we can do

Everything can change so quick

The Congressmen and businessmen and TV sets
Will try hard to make sure it isn’t so
“You don’t have a problem and if you do it’s not the SAME problem
“And if it is, well, there’s just nowhere you can go”
But it’s happened many times, the history is rich
Though we easily forget
How a meme can take hold and grab you
How it can spread out like a net

Everything can change so quick

They’ll say that we are lost, or we’re dreaming
Or they’ll make a dream for us
They’ll try to come up with a good story, a convincing narrative
About why we belong at the back of the bus
About why we belong in this position
About how we don’t know what we meant
About how there most certainly isn’t any such thing
As the 99%

But everything can change so quick

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“Everything Can Change” first appeared on the Bandcamp album of the same name in 2013.

This song is pedagogical, I’ve been told. Everything can change so quick, and there are many historical examples. 1848 is a good one. So is 1968, 2011 and other years in world history. No matter how authoritarian a regime may be, it nonetheless always requires the consent of the governed. Or at least significant elements of a given society. Ruling classes throughout history, around the world live in fear of that consent being withdrawn, no matter how pompous they may appear. The intelligent ones among them are keenly aware of how quickly that support can evaporate, and that violent and destabilizing consequences there can be. It’s important for people to know that this is the case. We have so much power, if we only all realize that at the same time. At the same time, the powers-that-be always do their best to prevent us from realizing that, and to divide us in so many ways. In an instant, though, masks can come off.