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Natural World

from Monkey Comfort by Penelope Swales

/

lyrics

Natural World
© 2003 Penelope Swales

People, It seems to me
That the myths we love the most can be
The most dangerous
The most insidious
We talk as if we just strayed
From the Garden of Eden
Everything would be okay
If we could just find our way back again
But our forebears had their reasons
Oh, now people I’m not saying
We did anything right the right way
We are products of a beautiful but brutal world
The world was wild so we tamed it
To help us survive, yeah we boxed up and trained it
And those who’ve never known danger scorn what was done.

Ah, but people, it seems to me
This was done out of love originally
An attempt to protect our community
So not so many of us would die or grieve
‘Coz people act best in adversity
When we help each other and give and receive
When we’re faced with danger, we pull together
But when we get the numbers we start pushing and shoving
And having fought so savagely
To make the world our sanctuary
These outdated instincts remain unchecked and free

CHORUS:
And we have the powers of gods in the hands of children
Genetic engineering, reinventing the atom
We unleash disasters that may well become
The creation myths of the next millennium.

People like to idolise the natural world
I love the natural world
Even though it’s such a dangerous place
People talk about the right to be safe,
But what animal has ever been safe?
Safety is an illusion
That belongs to the top of the food chain
And that’s what it means to be human
Is, we create a new chain.
On the streets or in the corporate game
We’re preying on each other just the same
And you and I are the plankton
That the multinationals graze upon
You and I at the bottom,
Bill Gates at the top

People like to idolise the natural world,
But the natural world is just as savage as the human race
Males do get aggressive,
Females do get submissive
Chimpanzees practice incest, infanticide, rape.
Packs of dogs devour their own weakest
Grazing animals cut down by the sleekest
Predators – we’ve only been trying to escape
We’ve only, we’ve only
It’s survival of the fittest and nothing is safe
Sweetheart the world is a dangerous place
It may be miraculous but let’s just get that straight.

CHORUS

Too much perspective is a bad thing
Observe my cynicism and take warning
Protect your passion and your motivation
Coz it’s the most precious thing you own
We must consciously take control of our evolution
Ha! Now that’s going to take some idealism!
We thought we’d be safe if we tamed the world
But the greatest task is to tame ourselves.
‘Coz all the things that worked for us in the wild
Are now working against us honeychild
All that aggression, all that competition.

CHORUS

CHORUS 2
In my opinion the big bang was sparked
By some celestial child
Some precocious brat
Who’d been playing with matches
While the science teacher had turned her back.

People like to idolise the natural world
But the natural world is just as savage as the human race
People idolise the natural world
While forgetting why we tried to tame it in the first place
People imitate the natural world,
Create a new jungle
Become predators, become prey
We’re terrified about the state of the world
But it’s inevitable
Coz it’s in our DNA

People like to idolise the natural world
I love the natural world myself

credits

from Monkey Comfort, released July 7, 2003
Vocals, guitar, stomp box, loop pedal - Penelope Swales
Bass, beatbox - Mal Webb

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about

Penelope Swales Boolarra, Australia

Penelope Swales has been articulating the human condition with passion and humour for 30+ years. She sings about politics, love, friendship, the unbreakable bond between us and dogs and the impact of the Internet on society. She won the 2019 Alistair Hulett Songs for Social Justice Award with “Cambridge Analytica”. “The Ides of March in Christchurch" was short-listed for the same award in 2020. ... more

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