Forty years of government have failed to protect us from the effects and consequences of global warming and with the ascendency of Donald Trump to the presidency of the US and his vow to open up public lands to the barons of the fossil fuel industry, it is now up to us, ‘we the people’ to defuse this global suicide bomb.
As Naomi Klein describes in "This Changes Everything - Capitalism Versus The Climate" (2014) when an oil company builds infrastructure, say a terminal or a pipeline they expect to be able to use if for full production for the next 50 years, and another five decades of the fossil fuel economy will send world temperatures soaring beyond habitability for human and much animal life. Scientists say that 90% of the current fossil fuel reserves has to stay underground if we are to survive. In this respect it is a fight to the death to stop pipelines and terminals from being built and to shut down the ones that exist. As we saw with the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Pipeline protests, we can win these struggles, but they are going to come thick and fast as Trump and Tillerson etc. slam down hard on the accelerator.
What would Shakespeare do about the current troubles in Elsinore? Write a play about it? Perhaps? The aforementioned Liberty Bell Drama Company wrote such a play entitled Brain Circus NY 2025 and put it on stage in Twisp WA in May of 2015. To Be or Not To Be? grew out of a half--snippet of a song from that play, wherein the rebels, calling themselves The Axis of Dissent, hack into day-time TV and broadcast their own messages in an attempt to reclaim the narrative for the many. Holly Brielle and Bryn Clayton Jones who provide vocals and voice-over respectively on this recorded version of the song, were both actors and active participants in the creation of the original play.
"Capitalismos" — from the Mekons song "Memphis Egypt,"on their 1989 album "Mekons Rock n’ Roll,"describing dead Elvis as "Capitalismos’ favorite boy child," ... from the Italian "capitalismo" for capitalism.
As a expository term it has jumped from the fictive dimension to the real, becoming short-hand for the ideology of the neo-liberal/neo-conservative, Coke/Pepsi, unrestrained predator capitalist universe that is ‘of the billionaires, by the billionaires, for the billionaires.’ Emerging in its modern form, under Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher Capitalismos is currently going off the deep end in 2017 with the cabal of sociopathic robber barons that Donald Trump has assemebled around himself.
Both art and science are shouting loud that if we want to survive as a species, then 'we the people' are left with no choice but to kill the ideology before it kills us. And in so doing perhaps then we may then stride forth from this dark age of consumption and coercion into a brighter era more akin to our quintessential human condition, of sustainability, compassion and empathy.
lyrics
TO BE OR NOT TO BE? TO BE OR NOT TO BE?
WHETHER TIS NOBLER IN THE MIND TO SUFFER
THE SLINGS AND ARROWS AND REAPER DRONES
OF THOSE WHO MAKE OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNES
FROM THE SUCIDE BOMB OF OUR FOSSIL FUEL
TO BE OR NOT TO BE, TO BE OR NOT TO BE
NOWHERE TO RUN,
NOWHERE TO HIDE
WHEN THE WHOLE PLANET IS A SACRIFICE ZONE
FOR THE ONE PER CENT IN THEIR GREEN ZONES
TO BE OR NOT TO BE, TO BE OR NOT TO BE
TO BE OR NOT TO BE
TO BE ENGAGED IN THIS EXISTENTIAL STRUGGLE?
TO BE OR NOT TO BE
BETWEEN LIFE ON EARTH AND AN ECONOMIC MODEL
OR TO TAKE ARMS?
AGAINST A RISING SEA OF TROUBLES
AND BY OPPOSING THEM FROM THE GROUND UP
END THEM … END THEM
DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE … DIE CAPITALISMOS DIE
DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE … DIE CAPITALISMOS DIE
WE’LL TAKE OUR POWER FROM THE WIND AND SUN
AND LEAVE THE OIL IN THE GROUND
DEMAND CLEAN AIR AND FRESH CLEAN WATER
AND LEAVE THE OIL IN THE GROUND
STANDING AGINST ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN …
ALL ALONG THE BARRICADES
SINGING, PIPELINES NO PASARAN
ALL ALONG THE BARRICADES
THE EMPIRE OF FOSSIL FUEL, HAS HAD IT FAR TOO GOOD,
FOR FAR TOO LONG
BUT ALL THINGS DECEASE, ALL THING DECAY
STARING TODAY THE LACK OF SEPARATION BETWEEN STATE AND CORPORATION
IS WAY PAST ITS SELL-BY DATE
SO DIE NEO-LIBERALISM. DE-REGULATORY RAPISM DIE
DIE CAPITALISMOS DIE …AND LEAVE THE OIL IN THE GROUND
DIE CAPITALISMOS DIE … AND LEAVE THE COAL IN THE GROUND
DIE CAPITALISMOS DIE … AND LEAVE THE GAS IN THE GROUND
DIE CAPITALISMOS DIE … AND LEAVE THE ARCTIC SOUND …
DIE CAPITALISMOS DIE … AND IN DEATH FERTILIZE
POWER THAT IS LOCAL COMMUNITY-SIZED
AND A HUMAN CONDITION THAT CAN EMPATHSIZE
WITH SUSTAINABILITY
AND AN END TO THIS INSANITY
AND AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION
TO BE … IT’S GOTTA BE TO BE
COME ON COME ON, COME ON COME ON,
YOU KNOW WE NEED A REVOLUTION
COME ON COME ON, COME ON COME ON,
WE GONNA BE A PART OF THE SOULTION
Danbert Nobacon: acoustic guitar, vocals
Holly Brielle: vocals
Anna Dooley: violin
Jimmy Berg: accordion, keyboard
Gregory Miles: electric guitar
Aaron J. Shay: banjo
Bellow Wing: saw
Andy Lowe: standup bass
Steve Kamke: drums
Bryn Clayton Jones: voiceover
Written by Hunter, N. Directed by Nobacon, D.
Produced by Mell Dettmer. Recorded, mixed and mastered by
Mell Dettmer at Studio Soli, Seattle WA, Oct 2015, and re-jigged Oct-Dec 2016
Danbert Nobacon & The Axis of DissentTwisp, Washington
Danbert Nobacon 'freak music legend,' 'mischievous political goblin,'got an associate degree in the science of children’s
play in England in the 1990’s whilst moonlighting in the punk rock band Chumbawamba.
The new album "Kochtopus's Garden—Now That's What I Call Capitalism—The Musical" lands on Mayday 05.01.24....more
supported by 5 fans who also own “To Be or Not To Be?”
Exceptional punk music! I love sloppy punk, but this manages to be clean without without losing any energy at all (maybe even getting more of it in the process!). Can't recommend it enough and show them to everyone I know zacharypinkham
supported by 5 fans who also own “To Be or Not To Be?”
I was surfing YouTube and this got looped into my music video mix... seen them live in Detroit for the 2024 North American tour and they crushed it! Awesome band full of energy and fun to watch! nagzxxx
supported by 4 fans who also own “To Be or Not To Be?”
I just got slapped around the head by vinyl Interrobang.
I'm 18, going on 60.......DOH!!!
(STILL MUMBLING....STILL MAD.....STILL HAPPY.....AND.......SAD)
Absolutely amazing album 👌 🏴☠️ Mikey T. Chas The Dog And Momo The Cat 🏴☠️
