There’s a new anti-war rock/hip-hop song hitting the air waves lately. It is called White Flag Warrior, from the album Survival Story, by Flobots and featuring Tim McIlrath of the punk rock band Rise Against. It’s a catchy tune with good lyrics, melding both rock and hip hop elements. The song has a definite non-violent resistance ring to it. The oft repeated line that “we’d rather make our children martyrs than murderers” reminds me of the Socratic position that it is better to suffer injustice than to commit it — truly libertarian sentiments.
Music video and lyrics below:
Lyrics
We request to negotiate
We come to you unarmed
We desire to communicate
You cannot do us harm
They want sacrifice
They hatch schemes and ask me to follow their path to the afterlife
I’ve got an appetite
For nice things and pipe dreams that my enemies could be blasted by
New metaphors
View that are better for you can’t survive if I’m your competitor
Rise together or fight separate wars
I pray I’m never forced to be a predator
Spectres spectate
We wont last
They glad to hate
When gladiators
Breathe their last
Scream en masse
When the dreams do clash
Like the swords in the wars
Let me bleed on that
But they feed on that
Say we need strong backs
Call us weak
If we don’t redeem contracts
But the feast wont last
When this beast attacks
The sons and the fathers
Will be free at last
This is love this is not treason
They see sharks in the estuary
They claim the arc’s Bartholomew’s
They say war is necessary
But we say war is child abuse
We’d rather make our children martyrs than murderers
We’d rather make our children White Flag Warriors
Core-to-core
Were the ones
We’ve been waiting for
We hold steady
Steadier than stevedores
Not tevias or matadors
On matters of what came before
Forgive the debts
To settle scores
Test the mettle
Either ore
Whats your plan got to do with me
If the bell tolls let freedom ring
And find new ways if we must be King
Instead of leading the young to our suffering
We pass testaments down scream back at heaven
For testing us like Wednesdays at eleven
Wanna recruit and train us to act evilly?
Save it for the shooting range and smack DVDs
Won’t study war no more this millennium
It’s never again to me or anyone
So think harder when you refer to us
Rather make our children martyrs than murderers
They shell dwellings to quell the shelling
They lift taboos to seduce the cowards
They say we’re too yellow-bellied
But we say we’re the new superpower
We seek waivers to not be liable
We claim to speak for a higher truth
We stand opposed to the homicidal
We tell you you’re fireproof
***
Cross-posted at Is-Ought GAP.
Interestingly, a commenter on Stephan Kinsella’s blog informs us that Tim McIlrath recommended Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead on one of his records.
“Were the ones
We’ve been waiting for”
Is the use of this Obama slogan supposed to be ironic? (Given their past explicit support for Obama, I doubt it.)
Heh. I wonder if they’ve become disillusioned of him since.