Song of the Week- "Survivor Guilt"
By Rise Against
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The Lyrics to "Survivor Guilt"*:
("What are you talking about? America is not going to be destroyed." "Never? Rome was destroyed, Greece was destroyed, Persia was destroyed, Spain was destroyed. All great countries are destroyed. Why not yours? How much longer do you really think your own country will last? Forever?") Block the entrances Close the doors Seal the exits 'Cause this is war All gave some Some gave all But for what I want to know Carry on Don't mind me All I gave was everything And yet you ask me for more Fought your fight Bought your lie And in return I lost my life What purpose does this serve? A folded flag A purple heart A family all but torn apart I fought with courage to preserve Not my way of life, but yours Carry on Don't mind me All I gave was everything And yet you ask me for more Fought your fight Bought your lie And in return I lost my life What purpose does this serve? The cowards preach from pedestals With words like courage and resolve But what they meant was fuck them all 'Cause freedom isn't free They send our daughters and our sons To deserts under burning suns A sacrificial slaughtering to fill The pockets of the weak An artificial enemy Are we so easily deceived? They carry on ("You're a shameful opportunist! What you don't understand is that it's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." "You had it backwards. It's better to live on your feet than to die on your knees.") Don't carry on Just walk away How many more sent to their graves In this lesson ignored? I fought your fight Bought your lie And in return I lost my life What purpose does this serve? What purpose did I serve? *Courtesy of AZLyrics. |
"Survivor Guilt" is off the album Endgame
This song has to do with wars fought not because people want to win, but
because people want status and money. It has many quotes from the novel Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. All the parts in parenthesis are said quotes. It captures the part of the book when Nately is talking to the Immoral Old Man in a brothel in Italy. Nately--who fights in the USA Army--believes that America is winning the war because they have the upper hand. What he doesn't realize is that there is no need for people to keep dying because America has almost won the war anyways. Also, the squadron Nately fights for has a constantly rising number of missions so that one can never stop flying for the Army. But, the reason the mission number increases is for the Generals to get more recognition, not because people are needed to fly. The Immoral Old Man believes that Italy is winning the war because nobody is dying and they will eventually rise to power again. This song stresses that many soldiers went to war and fought and died for illegitimate reasons. They pledged alliegeance to a flag that did not care. "A sacrificial slaughtering to fill the pockets of the weak" is saying that the war was merely a slaughtering in the name of America done to make the wealthy wealthier. War profiteers as described in the song are mocked and denounced in Catch 22 in the form of Milo Minderbinder, who sells to a syndicate that is himself, and bombs his own squadron for money from Germany. This song is jammed pack with meaning! 
I suggest you read Catch 22, it's an excellent book (one of my personal favourites)!
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