“We’re Trying To Shape The Future”

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This Isn’t Just About The Water by Stephen Murphy

This isn’t just about the water,
It’s about the prostitution of this island,
And the clients who have bought it.
It’s about how they bought and sold us,
Like we’re cattle at a mart,
As we swallow what they told us,
And tore ourselves apart.
It’s not meant to be divisive,
This is not just us and them,
Instead we should unite ourselves again to stand as men, women and children, Whose time has come to say,
That the system isn’t working,
There must be another way.

There must be a future where our children,
Won’t be forced to leave,
To find a better way of life,
In which they can believe.
A future where this island will belong to us once more,
And not the corporations that have risen to the fore.
But for all that we march, we need to keep this in perspective,
That the privatisation of water is an IMF-directive,
And the IMF themselves, for those who can’t yet see,
Are trying to write the manuscript for modern history.

So it’s not as simple as just demanding that water charges are abolished,
Because in my understanding, it’s their objective,
To demolish the notion of the nation state,
For all that it once stood,
Was abandoned there behind the gates,
Those days in Bretton Woods,
When economists assembled in July of ’44,
As the whole world shook and trembled,
In the mire of the war,
They were busy sowing seeds for the future of the planet,
And the way that we proceeded,
Is exactly how they planned it.

And for those who don’t believe me,
Look up Harry Dexter White and John Maynard Keynes,
When you get back home tonight.
Because I’m not some conspiracy theorist,
Sometimes I wish that was the case,
But one thing I really fear is,
That the problems we all face,
Are so entrenched with what we do and how we live our lives,
That we no longer have a clue or how to survive.
If they took away our iPhones, our Facebook and our Twitter,
The way they’ve taken people’s homes and look I know I’m being bitter,
But unless we stand united at the bottom to shout stop,
We can be certain now of one thing, that it won’t come from the top.

Because the trickle-down economy has been dammed up now for years,
And the 1% have no intent to pay back the arrears,
So it’s time to leave our differences and learn to come together,
Or the freedoms people fought for will be lost and gone forever.
Cause now our ideas of unity, and the nature of society,
Abandoned the community and push the impropriety,
And the people who are making calls,
For all our revolution, without any real ideas of a cognisant solution.

But in every revolution,
Where the wheels remain the same,
The bicycle will only travel further down the lane.
No matter who pushes the peddles,
The nature of the game just becomes the hunt for medals,
And the quest to lay the blame.
So we love to blame society,
And we cite a lack of trust,
But in the cold light of sobriety,
This all comes back to us,
Because Ireland is the prototype of globalist ambitions.
We bought the hype and sold the rights,
To all our old traditions.
And those we didn’t sell,
We just gave away for free,
To the cronies and the phonies,
In this modern dynasty,
Who see success as something measured by the others they put down,
Just to elevate themselves,
To the status of the clown.

But, look, it’s easy to just stand here and go on about what’s wrong,
We’ve elected politicians just for singing that same song,
But without a clear direction,
It’s just whistling in the wind,
So it’s time for introspection,
And time that we begin,
To decide what way the future is,
Well that choice is ours to make,
Do we lie back down and take it,
Or do we stand for what’s at stake?

And I know that what I do isn’t gonna change the world,
But if I can make a difference to one person with my words,
I would hope that it would be to say that mutual respect should be the very least that we, as people can expect.
‘Cause since these protests started,
I’ve seen hope grow exponential,
With people realising the true nature of their potential,
It’s not the bitching in the kitchens, wondering what might have been,
If only they’d done this or that or there to live their dream.

But we owe it to each other,
To be decent while we can,
To be kind to one another,
And to see that where we stand,
Well we’re all in this together,
Every woman and every man,
Drawn from all the corners of this rich and fertile land.
So I ask the people marching,
Not to see the guards as others,
They’re our brothers and our sisters,
Our fathers and our mothers,
And I ask the gardaí likewise,
To see us as the same,
Cause to see the bigger picture,
We must step outside the frame.

And to those who see mass protest,
As a waste of time at best,
It’s only cause of protest that these charges were addressed.
And to those, still sat at home,
Still unsure what they should do,
We’re trying to shape the future,
All we’re waiting for is you.

SA Murphy (Facebook)

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14 thoughts on ““We’re Trying To Shape The Future”

  1. Odis

    Sounds OK ayish. And then you get to the Bretton Woods agreement. Wasn’t that abandoned in 1972. A little knowledge etc …..
    Just sayin’

    1. Clampers Outside!

      He’s only referencing it as the “seed” and the start of globalisation, which is pretty accurate me thinks.

      …and no mention of The Paedo Protectors Party as our saviours which was a relief from the usual sh*te.

      Fair play to him, I like it anyway :)

      1. Odis

        I would fundamentally disagree…….
        The abandonment of the Bretton Woods system seems to have been the starting point for the modern rogering of the “little people”.

        But hey – whatever. Art for arts sake. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of ignorance in the name of artistic licence. I suppose it all depends on your definition of “globalisation”. And I think international arrangements are probably a bit “loose” for me.

  2. lolly

    Surely there is a contradiction above – trickle down economics is Monetarism with markets left almost completely unregulated which is largely at odds with Keynesian ideas of intervention. Is there an economist on here that could offer an opinion?

    as for its merits as a poem I can accept there is passion but I would call this doggerel at best.

    1. Alfred E. Neumann

      “Men, women and children,
      Whose time has come to say,
      That the cistern isn’t working,
      There must be another way.”

  3. Fe Dlowered

    There must be another way, a.k.a., Someone should do something about that, a.k.a, I don’t have any better ideas myself

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