Billy Bragg
The Sleep of Reason
One by one the stars grow dim
And fall out of the sky
And we gather 'round our shiny screens
To say a last goodbye
In communion with a bunch of folks
That we don't know or see
In the hope that we might feel something
In place of empathy
And so it goes
Sure gonna miss 'em
Is it wrong to cling to the past
When life comes at you so fast?
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
Lies ride in style on a big red bus
While you walk into town
And surrogates keep their caps lock on
TO SHOUT EACH OTHER DOWN
And the levies that protected truth
Can no longer hold the flood
And expertise and experience
Get trampled in the mud
And so it goes
Guess they had it coming
Now there's nothing that you can do
To convince them that it's true
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
It's over now, you lost my friend
Move on, just let it go
Says a man who flies a Confederate flag
On his profile just for show
When he hears someone point out that things
Are much too male and white
He eases off the safety catch
On his Second Amendment rights
And so it goes
And the kids are alt-right
Giving licence to all this hate
Is gonna make our country great
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
In this constant state of what the heck
Just happened, you fell woke
But through it all, you treat it like
It's just some kind of joke
And in the end, the greatest threat
Faced by democracy
Isn't fascism or fanaticism
But our own complacency
And so it goes
Best pay attention
For there's simply no guarantee
Of a happy ending to history
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
And the sleep of reason produces monsters
Produces monsters
Produces monsters