Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird
Freedom Is a Verb
[Verse 1]
You can fight a war with drones, you can fight a war with loans
You can fight a war with gas or cans of paint
But don't you realize that the game's compromised
If you think that this is something that it ain't
'Cause we got images of murder that don't manage to disturb
An international order that is bordering absurd
And no one gets the freedom they were told that they deserve
Till they realize that freedom's not a noun

[Chorus]
It's a verb! It's a verb!
Freedom is a verb
Something never finished, never done
It's something you must make
It's something you must take
It's something you must constantly become

[Verse 2]
Well this weekend revolution, it's a radical inclusion
It's a holiday of popular revolt
It's the social interaction of inconsequential actions
Using faces to replace a silent vote
But lower pay and higher rent's another kind of violence
The violence of silence and of greed
It's the violence of feeling, your irrelevance revealing
Every way in which you never will be freed
[Chorus]
It's a verb! It's a verb!
An action and an urge
As fertile as the barrel of a gun
And it happens out of need
It's a fire and a seed
And it's terrible potential has begun

[Verse 3]
Well they'll tell you that your liberty is constantly in jeopardy
It's something you must loyally defend
But isn't it demeaning when your well-intended meanings
Mean your means'll have to justify your ends?
So improvise a barricade of furniture cascading
It's a carnival of helmets in the flood
For the bottles can be filled with either gasoline or lager
Or detergent that'll wash away your blood!

[Chorus]
It's a verb! It's a verb!
Freedom is a verb
Something never finished, never done
It's something you can fake
And it's something that'll break
If it ain't something that you constantly become!
It's a verb! It's a verb!
An action and an urge
As fertile as the barrel of a gun
And it happens out of need
It's a fire and a seed
And it's terrible potential has begun!