Henry and Ralph
A Transcendentalist Rallying Rap for A Republic In Crisis
Henry Thoreau
Henry Thoreau told civilization: Yo’ I gotta go cause I need a vacation
So he went to Walden and he had a revelation
Wo! Most of us live lives of quiet desperation
Lo and behold another old quotation
seems to capture the essence of a modern vexation
It’s like Thoreau knew that in the future
you and I would have to act
in radical ways to mitigate the sad fact
that: Because we gotta slave to keep our bills paid
Sometimes it seems our minds are kinda’ ripe to get played
by the vultures of our culture only hoping to withhold us
from anything any deeper than work while we scold ya
Buy what we told ya pay what you owe
Uh, and we’ll insure you get a debt you’ll never get over
treating human beings like mere skin machines where the cash is
some sick profiteer’s demographics
or puppets made of plastic molded and mastered
stretched thin as thread until bled dead and into caskets
We try to contrast it by coming off sarcastic
but because the situation we’re facing is so drastic
many of us huff puff and snort stuff to get blasted
hoping to deaden the pain that seems everlastin’
but we find that action serves to make the masses act more passive
keeping our minds inactive to the plans of the fascists
who wanna keep separated by races, genders, and classes
cause that’s the way you keep the status quos status as is
But don’t let ‘em head fake you
shake and bake and back break you down to the ground
come around to clown and undertake ya’
You’ve gotta fight back! and my advice is:
Use whatever thing of beauty you got trapped inside
you as a weapon
Do ya dig!? (Audience Repeats: “Yes, We Dig”)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was a brilliant thinker
known to be the don among New England Transcendentalists
he thought we all should become self-reliant existentialists:
trust our very own experience
and not rely upon the pre-conceptions we’ve inherited
like socio-cultural, racial and political prejudice
beware of demagogic fundamentalists
dig the way Ralph Waldo kicked that 19th century rhetoric:
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else
is the greatest accomplishment
Don’t give up cause every artist was once an amateur
and your character is of more value than your intellect
and guess whatfor every minute you are angry
kid you gonna lose sixty seconds of happiness
Though the purpose of life is not to be happy.
But to be useful and have your life make some difference.
to do any of this
requires us to make mental shifts
toward a broader vision and then broader consciousness
and listen to that higher self within the one that insists
Love, play, chant, meditate and then dance, yo
sometimes you gotta let go and take a chance on
becoming more than they told you you could be:
a transcendent human being and not a human “bling thing”
this world can be an enemy whose mission be
to empty you of empathy, intelligence and energy
can come around to destroy what joy you got left
make you wanna give up your last breath
But don’t let ‘em head fake ya’
shake and bake and back break ya’
down to the ground come around to clown and undertake ya’
You’ve gotta fight back and my advice is:
Use whatever thing of beauty you got trapped inside
you as a weapon
Do ya dig!? (Audience Repeats: “Yes, We Dig”)
Image: “Beauty of Twilight ” by Eddi van W. , licensed under CC 2.0
- Henry and Ralph - January 12, 2019