No Strings

I watched the London riots from the comfort of my own home last week, here in Northern California. Which is its own perspective, I know. Every where on earth there is a class division of wealthy, rich, middle class and poor. How the wealthy and rich keep playing the sidelines on issues like this is beyond my comprehension. Every time. They just let the poor suffer until they snap. And the middle class seems to always take the brunt of this reaction. Then the rich step in afterwards and narrate the story with control of the press. Then it starts all over again.
All over the globe there is revolution. Now London. But for some strange reason this particular chain of events got lumped into another category. Wrong. It's the same thing. The only difference is that it is happening to YOU now and you are not as united as the Egyptians were. And because of this subdivision among the classes, it makes it easier to reprimand the poor for being revolutionary. I really don't see the difference between the collateral damage in London and Afghanistan. Both are being looted, bombed and pillaged by a bunch of 18 year olds for reasons that inevitably benefit some upper class regime; the wealthy corporations.

So in this song, I wanted to capture the moment where the middle class (portrayed by me) is reacting to the rioting poor in the street. Except I want to point out that we are both being played against each other by the corporations, the media and the wealthy by addressing the tactic in which they use to control us like puppets. And my question is how do they do that if there are no strings attached to anybody? Then in a moment of clarity, as I am watching footage of rioters walking down the street with televisions...it all makes sense. I look up at the satellites in orbit. I can't see them. But I know they are there.
So now I am wondering if this even matters to a group of people who are so desperate enough to loot. How can we read Robin Hood to the kids, if we are all dangling like Pinnochio? How do we change something that we cannot see? Where is the key that unlocks invisible chains? How do you ask this question without people laughing in your face(book)?
The fuck if I know either...but that's why I write songs, sometimes...so that I don't forget these questions.

Your friendly cyberhood
Uncle Samurai
No Strings by mooselethridge
Hey what the hell are you doing there?
Are you trying to manifest destiny?
Like a pawn on a chessboard now
In the hands of your so -called queen

But it has caught our attention now
We see you walkin' with that TV screen
Aint no time for intervention now
But there is something that you need to see

The rich are gettin' richer
And the poor keep on suffering
It's a theater of politics
Controlled like a puppet, but the puppet aint got no strings

I know they'd still be ignoring y'all
If it weren't for this emergency
But them guards that they're deploying now
They aint payed to think of what it means
They got a rope made of blood-red tape
And they love to just let it swing
They got you hangin' like Pinnochio
So they can blame you for falling in the streets

That's how the rich keep dividing up
All the poor for the conquering
In this theater of politics
That's controlled like a puppet, but the puppet aint got no strings

They got me gazing at the satellites
That they hook to your TV screen
And when you turn it on and watch tonight
You can see for yourself what I mean
But you still loot and run around
But it don't change a god damn thing
If you really want to hit 'em hard
We got to stand up in unity

Because the rich keep dividing up
All the poor for the conquering
It's just a theater of politics
That's controlled like a puppet, but the puppet aint got no strings