about
"Equal inequality" was written at a time when I felt very much inspired by Rise Against, back around 2002, when I actually liked them. It's a song about the universality of inequality among human beings.
I have mention the following though, because I thought long and hard whether or not I should even release this song: The first verse is FACTUALLY INCORRECT!!! I didn't know any better at the time. But I – like, sadly, most other people in the social sciences and humanities to this day – was under the romantic illusion that humanity has gradually become less peaceful and has historically increasingly deviated from a state of peace (this is otherwise known as the "noble savage myth"). We know now that this is not correct, in fact the opposite is true. If I remember correctly (and there is great research on this and, for example, an enlightening TED talk by psychologist Steven Pinker), we are, as far as we know, in fact living in the most peaceful time ever. And this has already factored in the world wars and all other conflicts including the death tolls. If you look at modern hunter-gatherer societies, which are the closest to our ancestors in the way they live, you will find that their societies are violent (in terms of the risk of dying at the hands of another person) to the point where the most dangerous human metropolis on earth appears positively idyllic.
I'm just mentioning this because I don't want to be complicit in further spreading falsehoods that are already way too widespread and will most likely take a few more decades to go away.
lyrics
- Equal inequality -
We started out as one race
crouching on the ground,
one people, one struggle,
a community safe and sound.
Then came the day
that some broke away
learning to steal, how to cheat, and to betray.
So why are you better than me?
Could it be that it's greed that drives you on?
Is there a latter I can't see,
which I could climb to become a higher human being?
A cruel steeplechase,
just mistrust, class, and race,
six billion brothers don't recognize your face.
Someone tell me
when we lost the key
to that fortress we once named "Unity"?
So why are you better than me?
Could it be that it's greed that drives you on?
Is there a latter I can't see,
which I could climb to become a higher human being?
Chorus:
I've been many places
but all that I've seen is equal inequality.
I've seen all those faces
of sorrow and grief,
is this how it's supposed to be?
I heard someone say,
"a can of beans and some hay
in an abandoned wagon is but romantic cliché"!
But that someone there
lives everywhere
in marble palaces beyond poverty and despair.
So why are you better than me?
Could it be that it's greed that drives you on?
Is there a latter I can't see,
which I could climb to become a higher human being?
Chorus:
credits
from
Besides... (2012),
released December 3, 2012
All music and lyrics written, performed, and recorded by Stephan Serowy.
license