The New Wild West You see the ghost of the buffalo moving both fierce and slow Like glittering prophesies on the edge of the horizon As you drive glittering highways and beaten-up byways That straddle and girdle our great and many-faced nation You see the lambs in the ghettos who worship their Gepettos Believing in, never seeing, the strings they think bind them So we write to our congressmen with bleeding pens of the sorrow within And in return, they just send tickets to the latest Tom Hanks show CHORUS Welcome to the new wild west Each man for himself A nation of civilized steeples And lonely people Welcome to the new wild west
There are so many factions and cue-card reactions It's hard to keep clear the possibilities here 'cause there's no force to unite them Privilege has ruled for thousands of years Wars have been fought with bibles and tears
Yet liberation can't deny the temptation and soon becomes the oppressor Show me a leader who's fit to lead Who don't sow his seed in anything wounded enough to breed Because after all, what fun is power if you can't act like a rock star?
CHORUS
As for me, I've been petty Oh, and unkind, but I know my own mind And since it seems clear there's no one leading us here The only thing left it appears is to task ourselves to be better each time, than those before us We'll be an army of thieves, of self-freed slaves, of mild-mannered maids We'll fight with whispers and blades So get ready, a new day is dawning