This song began with one image in the summer of 2021. I was driving past a local liquor store and I saw a woman getting out of her car. Across her car door was a very large sticker – almost as wide as the door itself – that said “TRUMP WON” I only saw her for a moment but I got an immediate sense of this person: confident, proud, unbothered. Everywhere she goes she is presenting that opinion to the world. I can’t think of a single opinion I hold that I would feel compelled to place across a vehicle for all to see at all times. That takes a certain kind of confidence. The first lines came to me in that moment.
Parked at the liquor store
Propoganda on her door
Proud to be salty and free
She’s not alone
Just one of many many
Living in a twisted fantasy
We can call it a lie but she’s living in a separate reality
From that image the song became an exploration of something I was seeing everywhere – people living in what felt like genuinely separate realities, unable to agree on even the most basic shared facts.
It got me thinking about perception itself. Take something as simple as color. Two people can point at the same object and both call it red. But is what I see when I look at red actually the same experience you have? What if the color you experience as red looks the way green looks to me, but we’ve both learned to call our experience by the same word? We’d have no way of knowing.
People aren’t simply lying. They aren’t simply deceived. On some level they are genuinely inhabiting a different reality. “We can call it a lie but she’s living in a separate reality.” If we can’t agree that red is red and blue is blue, how are we meant to find common ground?
Parked in the arm chair
Screaming into the chamber
Silently yet violently so
He’s not alone
Just one of many many
Acting out a twisted fantasy
The character in the second verse was written as the counterpart to the lady at the liquor store. Where she is out in the world, moving confidently with her ideology on display, he is stationary, screaming silently into an echo chamber. I was thinking about local Facebook groups, the constant infighting, people repeating the same talking points as everyone else on their team with complete confidence – like parrots. They don’t seem to be arriving at these positions through any independent process. They’re finding the newest opinion and repeating it loudly and proudly. “You can watch the monkey do, you can do just as they do.”
Underneath all of this is something I think about as the world of man versus the world as it is. Picture a flower on the side of the road. It wasn’t planted, it wasn’t watered, it doesn’t belong to anyone. It’s just a flower existing as it does for its lifetime – whether or not we describe it, name it, argue about it. That’s the world as it is. The world of man is the layer on top – the words, the symbols, the ideologies, the parties and clans. That layer only exists within human consciousness. It has no physical or material reality of its own. And yet people are dying and killing in the name of it. Seeking answers from the universe, asking the great unanswerable questions – that I can understand. But outsourcing understanding of reality to a pundit, an influencer, a politician is just dumb.
Speaking of dumb, I first titled this song “The World Is Obtuse.” I thought obtuse meant difficult to understand. It must have been almost a week of working on the song before I finally looked up the word and realized the word I was reaching for was abstruse. I was embarrassed. I realized – not only is the world abstruse, difficult to comprehend, but the word itself is difficult to understand. I was being obtuse.
The world is abstruse and humans are obtuse.
This song and My Opinions came from a similar place and around the same time. Songs written out of fatigue, frustration, disappointment, worry – from watching people I knew personally, friends and family, fighting online over talking points and ideological battles that seemed so removed from actual life.
Meanwhile, I was living alone with my dogs in the forest on the rural Oregon coast. Without need for any of that conflict in my day-to-day life. I was simply looking after myself, the dogs, the house and spending most my time in nature. It wasn’t until I opened Facebook or took a drive into town that any of that nonsense entered my world.
The World Is Abstruse
Parked at the liquor store
Propaganda on her door
Proud to be salty and free
She is not alone
Just one of many many
Living in a twisted fantasy
We can call it a lie but
She’s living in a separate reality
We can call it a lie but
She’s living in a separate reality
We have to imagine
As she’s cruising down the street
The grass may be blue while the sky is green
There’s no way to know it
It’s only a sight for her eyes
For her it may be red
For you it may be blue
Red lies blue lies it’s purple in disguise
For you it may be red For her it may be blue
What is the truth
The world is abstruse
How could it be so plain to see
Yet it’s lost on the majority
The world of men tells of parties and clans
But to me it’s all make believe
Look around
Life is here now
Parked in the arm chair
Screaming into the chamber
Silently yet violently so
He’s not alone
Just one of many many
Acting out a twisted fantasy
We can call it a lie but
He’s living in a separate reality
We can call it a lie but
He’s living in a separate reality
What is the truth
The world is abstruse
Seeking answers from the news
Yeah that’ll tie your noose
You can watch the monkey do
You can do just as they do
Cause it’s a man’s world
And we’re living in a zoo
Seeking answers from above
That I can understand
Seek the answer from a man
You’re being a dumbass
Seeking answers from above
That I can understand
Seek the answer from a man
And you’re being a dumbass
ericprincessdragon 