43. Father John Misty - “Things That Would Have Been Helpful To Know Before The Revolution”

If the previous jam dealt with the almost certain oblivion of the pre-apocolyptic present, then this jam explores the potential shortcomings of an imagined solution, or rather the inevitability of the human predilection for self-destruction. We as a society and a species stand at a crossroads – a crux within which we must make a decision (just in case the prior post wasn’t explicit enough). We have the unique position of apocalyptic sentience, something that all of the volcanoes, floods, and meteors of the past lacked. We can control our destruction – and yet here we are, doing nothing, ignoring all of the signs as we carry on the same as we have for the past three centuries or so, continuously digging the grave within which we will all eventually asphyxiate and rest within.

However, this song tries to imagine an alternative future within which a revolution successfully takes place. Somehow something is done, and the people rise and react, halting the manmade powers that sought to become nothing more than unremitting forces of nature. The people have won, and yet victory still eludes them. It’s the classic dilemma faced by all opposition and revolutionaries – destruction is easier than creating, in the same way that criticism and resistance is easier than leadership and governance. Any sense of purpose is lost and obscured. Its shrouded in the actualization of reality. Resistance gives way to realization and leaves all the zealots aimlessly drifting without a goal or a target to assail. The people now have the reigns, however, amidst the glory of the revolution there begins to rise an unmistakable sense of restlessness and uncertainty. Society starts to return to the shadows of the past, to seek out the old and established footprints of those who came before, and instead cling to the known. History begins to repeat itself – maybe with a slightly different tinge or flavor to it, but the result is more or less the same. Order begins to re-emerge, right alongside inequality and capital. Humanity is unable to shake its past and truly change, proving that maybe intelligence is always destined for destruction, or maybe, and perhaps even worse, humanity is forever destined to stubbornly carry on with a doomed and irreconcilable existence.