Comply/Resist - Propagandhi

Circa 1992, Hitchens faxed his copy through

As «Regards Columbus Day»

If you’ll permit me the conceit of a posthumous critique

I’ll paraphrase:

«My colorful, exotic friend

Respectable, well spoken

Unlike the rest of them

As you know, I’m color-blind and you’re a credit to your kind

This silly talk of resurgence, ceremony, communion with

An unconquered natural world

Tell me, where is your gratitude for all we’ve done for you?

This paradise, Eden, empire, kingdom

This boundless epoch we’ve bestowed

Upon your savage, empty lands

Well, of course mistakes were made

But as far as human progress goes

Welcome to a slightly higher plane

Of innovation and opportunity

For your trampled communities

The treaties that we broke

The lands that we filched

The settlements put to the torch

The children we abused

All for your own good, of course

It happens to be the way history has been made

Don’t go play with a toy gun or change lanes without signalling

Don’t comply, don’t resist

'Cause it don’t make no difference

Comply?

Resist?

No difference

Resist?

Comply?

You die

The funny names you give your kids

The silly ways you do your hair

The jungle music that you blare

We snicker and we sneer, for they do not revere

The incessant gadgetry we incessantly deploy

To incessantly extract and incessantly destroy

You don’t worship us

Oh, why don’t you worship us?

Resist?

Comply?

You die"