Infomodities 92

Lyrics

Ninety-two Careening down a reckless path of blind hope and arguable vision Disseminating infomodities to a marginalized public Appropriating airwaves and disc players through dubious channels Injecting drop of fluoride into a sea of mind candy To cauterize the abscess of a virtual reality society How is the mind manufactured? Through censorship, propaganda, manipulation, and erasure of all history, politics, and social development We demand freedom of information Yet the Freedom of Information Act has been rendered an oxymoron Under Reagan executive order, all documents of potential controversy are to be classified, and are therefore out of reach of the Freedom of Information Act How can we hold federal agencies like the FBI, FDA, and Department of Defense accountable when they are totally untouchable? Our mind's under the spell of voodoo economics For twenty years Capitol Hill has passed laws to favor the rich and powerful While the middle class crumbles under the weight of taxation And the working class and poor are being starved by privatization of health, education and housing services Insufficient prenatal care for poor women gives way to astronomical infant mortality rates in the city As the rich secede from a third-world US Yet the middle- and lower-class taxpayers will still have to pay for the crimes at the top $700 billion, including 250 billion for the subsequent coverup of the S&L crisis, the largest financial scandal in US history We were blind to Reagan's Justice Department, swindling Inslaw Corporation out of its intelligence and tracking software, and turning it over to Earl Brian, a businessman and arms dealer, as a payback for his arranging of Reagan's arms-for-hostages October Surprise Then there's George Bush, whose public persona is absolutely one of virtual reality, considering his central role in the CIA's covert operations around the world for more than three decades In addition to his son Neil's known S&L ties, his brother Prescott, a financial consultant was paid $200,000 by Japanese companies with alleged links to organized crime His son, Jeb, a Miami real estate developer, is a close friend and business associate of Leonel Martinez, an active supporter of the Contras, who has been investigated for four murders and for smuggling cocaine and marijuana into the US. Martinez is currently serving 23 years in prison for drug trafficking You tell me Are we blind, or is it virtual reality? 'War is the health of the state' has been US policy for over two centuries However, when uncensored media coverage of Vietnam racially altered public opinion on the war effort It became necessary to conduct all subsequent military campaigns within the realm of virtual reality The Gulf War set new standards for wartime secrecy How do we make up our minds when we aren't told about the thousands of Iraqi soldiers buried alive by US tanks? Or the marines' use of napalm? Or the denial and ongoing coverup of Iraqi civilian casualties? Or that reporters are routinely harassed by government officers? Both CBS and NBC refuse to broadcast uncensored footage taken inside Iraq by independent producers Do we believe Bush's claims of massive Iraqi buildup on the Arabian border, when Soviet satellite photos clearly contradicted this? What we ... to war with accompanying cheerleading polls on TV Do we realize that every two days in the Iraq War we spend $1 billion? That's as much money as a whole year's allocation for AIDS treatment and research And that 70% of that money is wasted on cruel and pointless animal experimentation? In 30 days, the Gulf War costs more than the whole federal annual allowance for affordable housing, environmental protection, job training, Head Start, alternative energy programs, low-income legal aid, adult literacy programs, and handicapped education combined? Through all of this, the government, corporations, and media continue to wage their assault on the women's and environmental movement Lawsuits, surveillance, and harassment of activists, coupled with misleading advertising campaigns attempt to derail advancements made by these movements Dan Quayle, blaming the decay of inner cities on single mothers And talk radio personalities, who reflect corporate conservatism, ridicule and distort gains made in gender and environmental protection This is just information to assimilate You take what you want from it In many ways we will continue to be blind Can we escape virtual reality? You make up your own mind Consolidated I'm out