From an Army of One to an Audience of One

Something you may not know about me: I dabble in punk rock (A few of my favs, in case you're curious: Punchline, ).

Like any good SciFi (another genre I love but am no expert in - love the Ender's Game series), punk songs are at their best when they provide acute, poignant social commentary.  Such is the case with Rise Against's "Audience of One."  While the lyrics might seem a little obscure or vague, the music video is quite striking:


I'm not sure if this was the band's intention, but the song's title reminds me of the military's slogan, "Army of One," a while back.  The video shows how we've lost our way, or rather runaway, either to war or our 9-5 jobs, and we've lost all connections to those we love.  The closing bridge:

We're all ok, until the day we're not
The surface shines, while the inside rots
We raced the sunset and we almost won
We slammed the brakes, but the wheels went on

The end result?  We're left alone in an "audience of one."  May we remember how we got here - by running away from tough decisions and passing the buck to future generations... or so we thought, when really we were passing it off for 5, 10 years down the road.  May we find our way again, together, before it's too late.