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Demo

by Convulsant

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1.
*****At the very core of liberal democracy and capitalism’s ideology is the disjuncture between fantasy and reality. To ascribe to unfettered individualism is to neglect the inherent sociability that is built into all human beings and the groups they necessarily compose. All work is done within an integral set of relations, realized or not. The infiltration of the market into all arenas of social life has put prices on those qualities of life that are priceless, bastardizing them in the process while making them unavailable to the many. Ours is a world marked by the illusion of uniqueness that constantly tries to vindicate the production of inequality. Free trade agreements, from NAFTA to the now-negotiated TPP, are vehicles whose sole purpose is to push this fantasy forward at the expense of both people and the environment that it is intrinsically a part of. This fiction exists because we continue to write it, like a bad dream we continue to have together. When we wake up, our hands will be marked by the blood of our sisters and brothers.***** FTAA, TPP Zapatistas set me free Commodified, fall in line Broken, fractured I’ll be fine Free trade, death knell NAFTA, CAFTA Tie my hands Bricks to ankles scorched earth sand Privatized, close your eyes, Seattle 1999 Fuck We’re all taking turns, breaking our own sweats Cubicles to individualize our deaths Memorials to empty skies Islands filled with lords of flies Fail to see the more you try
2.
*****Nationalism or the idea of greatness and exceptionalism surrounding certain countries and their peoples only exists in its juxtaposition to others deemed “less great,” or less worthy. This concept, manufactured, necessarily divisive and laden with violence in all its forms, has been mobilized to justify the subjugation and suppression of innumerable places and people by a number of states in their endless trajectory forward to feed the unsated appetites of those without conscience or consequence. Immanent to this idea is the constant jingoism that endeavors to legitimate itself via the dominant institutions that condition and discipline their subjects. Yet there are forces always keen to this façade, subverting its legitimacy by exposing the tenuous strings that clumsily hold its suspension. Names are unimportant in sharp contrast to the significance and faith unduly placed in the idolization of symbols with no substance. The gluttonous organism is infected. It breeds its own disease, ironically its only virtue, the life that’s freed from its death..****** Mr. Rockefeller, welcome to your children’s empty womb You’ve bled out the stomach, kept off the grass It’s time to bolster down this tomb You can count on a grave, to bury a body You’ll never cover up a dream You can only get so fat off of ill-intentions Until you’re bursting out the seems Welcome to a country without a name Welcome to the last vestige of a country without a name
3.
*****In September of 1999, the Bolivian government, coerced by the World Bank under conditions set as a result of structural adjustment programs to keep dire developmental aid flowing to the impoverished country, privatized its public water infrastructure which was subsequently bought behind a closed-door meeting to a sole bidder, the US’s fourth largest privately owned company, the civil engineering giant known as Bechtel. Rates were immediately and arbitrarily raised by 50%, a move symptomatic of countries whose governments are left impotent under international financial institutions’ hegemonic instruction and consequent corporate prerogatives. The history behind Bolivia’s inevitable exploitation by these giants, as well as the rest of Latin America, is situated in colonial and imperial relations that have intentionally stunted development in the attempt to create a docile appendage to operate at the behest of the core. Protests that ensued after these changes and the reactionary state’s response left a seventeen year old boy, Victor Hugo Daza, dead and myriad others injured. The cost of fascism is always paid for. Its currency is life.***** Pray we won’t pay for the water we danced to make fall All smiles are attempts at arresting assaults This hemisphere’s on fire 120 million children in the eye of the hurricane Work until you fall asleep Graveyards for pastures of sheep The will of this specter Made loud by the cone of her recluse Kiss it on the forehead Turn on the lights and find nothing in this tomb The aftermath of its legacy Post-imperial, bankrupt peasantry Until we reach the seventh sea It’s fascist corporate hegemony
4.
Capital Hill 01:23
*****The organization of our economic system is the diametrically opposed form to that of real political democracy. Authoritarian ownership over the means of production characterizes the social relations of work that we find in most arrangements of organization in the economy. Put simply, a tiny number of people make the decisions about what, where and how to produce, and most importantly, what to do with the profits. It is only through the extraction of extra value that one who labors does not receive compensation for that produces the surplus needed to sustain such relations of inequality. Many people have realized this illegitimate form of ownership and began organizing enterprises according to democratic rule and virtue. Yet the majority of the products that are produced and consumed come into being through essentially exploitative relationships. This method of production has done more than just create drastic inequalities in wealth, income and quality of life but is precisely the motive that is driving the endless exploitation of the natural world and leading to its impending destruction through an unquenchable effort to extract a larger surplus. It’s high time we began thinking about alternative ways of organizing economically that mimic truly democratic and egalitarian systems. Without this possibility, even imagining a future may be incomprehensible. KEEP THE PRODUCTS YOU PRODUCE.***** No chattel left to reduce the stress Inhaling death stuck in your chest One beam of light, lost in your sight The decisions that dictate the rest of your life Falling, falling from grace On the way down we’ll watch you smash your face You’re landing in the clouds of smoke You burnt the town and now we’re broke We’re taking back what’s ours to take Don’t underestimate what’s at stake Keep the products you produce The CEO’s will kiss the noose I’d soon see you underneath this earth You littered and destroyed its worth Signatures signal one more loss For the corporate-fascist holocaust KEEP THE PRODUCTS YOU PRODUCE
5.
*****Exactly twenty-eight years prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, there was another equally, arguably more devastating act of terrorism. Santiago, Chile was the scene of a violent authoritarian coup executed by military General Augusto Pinochet, rubberstamped and financially sponsored through the CIA and United States intelligence. The goal was to overthrow democratically-elected socialist President Salvador Allende and reestablish US political-economic hegemony throughout the region. The idea of mechanisms of power being operated by the people according to actual democracy was enough to sanction the death and destruction of countless innocent lives. The dictatorship formally lasted until the early 90s, with remnants of its infamy still present today throughout Chile, as well as virtually all of Latin America that was the stage of the global north’s theater of oppression. Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics Sciences’ winner, economist of Chicago University Milton Friedman, established the rationale for the harsh economic policies that the dictatorship would ascribe to and set the ground for the disastrous experiment in neoliberalism that would rip apart the social fabric and make Chile one of the most socioeconomically unequal countries in the world. This history’s obscurity in the minds of average Americans is a form of violence itself, perpetuating injustice and leaving the innocent who suffered neglected and without vindication. This is the first and the forgotten 9/11. ¡Viva Allende!***** Milton Friedman I’m at your front door With a gun in my hand, bury you under the floor 9/11 1973, Erase that from American History Chicago Boys, Catholic University Pinochet’s in bed with the CIA Presidential Palace up in flames Desaparicidos split their veins Black lists made red with empty names Kill all defectors of the caged-market games Democracy was never going to work Nixon’s fist in Santiago
6.
Dead End* 01:33
7.
Vagabond 01:16
*****Contrary to the modern fallacy, homelessness is neither the result of a lack of work ethic nor a moral deficiency, but stems from an economic system that is structurally embedded to ‘externalize’ certain demographics deemed unproductive. Whether a worker made redundant vis-à-vis technology, labor market saturation or other economically uncontrollable scenarios that are imposed top down or individuals who are deemed ‘unemployable’ because of disabilities, both physical and mental, the most marginalized are the ones who incur the real costs of production. The continual private influences of wealth and power have simultaneously gutted social programs that act as the only sources of hope and mobility left to those who quite literally have nothing. The irony of a national culture that exhorts its reverence for its military while at the same time leaving a staggering number of veterans homeless and without access to treatment and dignity speaks a great deal about the chasm between our ideals and practices. God bless America.***** Drilling away, desperate despondent Filling out heads, fuck it I’m on it Sift through the trash, picking up garbage Harbinger of dirt This man is a time bomb, this man is a casket Falling in lines- queue up the traffic Forgetting his name, white out his face Privilege of kings, deny him a place We’re all fucking ourselves, give him a chance To sleepwalk on glass, sidestep this ash Drowning in kindness Wake up in spit Cashing, cashing, cashing Cashing in Cowardly species (this has always been us) They’ll find us as fossils

credits

released October 30, 2015

Demo recorded by Peter August at Clubhouse recording studios.

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Convulsant Bloomfield, New Jersey

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