Song Meaning
The lyrics paint a grim, chaotic picture of war, stripping away any pretense of glory or necessity. The opening lines immediately establish a sense of inescapable urgency, with "no time to run" and "times running in." This isn't a strategic advance; it's a relentless, almost mechanical progression of conflict, driven by "troops, and bombs, and guns." The repeated phrase "War is business" acts as a brutal, cynical refrain, suggesting the entire enterprise is driven by profit rather than principle. The narrator observes people fighting from "the left and right," highlighting a pervasive, indiscriminate conflict.
The central tension emerges from the stark contrast between the common person's forced participation and the implied beneficiaries of this conflict. The lyrics question, "Why do our lives have to go with indecisions," while simultaneously stating, "We have permission to take, to decide, to fight!" This creates a disturbing paradox: individuals are given agency only within the destructive framework of war. The line "We fought with them, the rich don't have to fight" directly articulates the class disparity at the heart of the critique, suggesting that those who profit from war are insulated from its horrors.
The most striking aspect of the craft is the chillingly detached, almost procedural language used to describe extreme violence. Phrases like "call the death squad" and "collision, finish this" reduce human lives and suffering to mere operational steps. The repeated instruction to "close your eyes, decide, think on your own" is deeply ironic; it's presented as a form of personal agency, yet it seems to encourage passive acceptance or a willful ignorance of the brutal reality, like the "bodies their f*cking dead in the streets." This juxtaposition of bureaucratic language with visceral horror is what makes the lyrics so unsettling.
Ultimately, these lyrics hit hard because they expose the dehumanizing machinery of war. By framing conflict as a cold, profitable transaction and contrasting it with the lives lost by ordinary people, the writing forces a confrontation with the cynical logic that perpetuates violence. The blunt repetition of "War is business" serves as a constant, grim reminder that the human cost is secondary to economic gain.
View Artist