and ted said, 'you've got to look at it our way
it's text book: people don't give in, you have to dominate.'
so we strike first and furious
and offer more sophisticated colonialism with a kind name.
call in the regulars: for-profit consulting firms, engineers, NGOs and UN aid.
but if it happens at all, the work is too slow, too short, and too late.
locals shut out by expense-account foreigners who know best how to structure a local government,
but can't get from one side of town to the other.
instead there's a world bank ready to hand out to the desperate they know can't repay.
there are teams of old gray men passing along an inherited dream of some long lost golden boys,
calling every struggle romantic and every victory just.
'democracy builders' with puffed chests telling tall tales of who we wish we were.
our sins aren't so original
and you can invest in my bones and it will return bittersweet again and again and again
so let's take it two steps at a time, as they take one and walk right by.
by ballot or by bullet, we're coming for you,
and by ballot or by bullet, our day is coming.
we've got pockets full of days and i think that yours are numbered.