Little Red Pin
March 2019, Gibson Chase-Pinkney

(I)
There’s a little red pin, stuck in your hat
A hammer and sickle, catch light and flash
So I can’t help but notice, the diminutive thing
You might wear to display that you’re on the left wing
/ C - / C - / F C / F C /
(II)
But lenin wasn’t exactly a lover of freedom
And stalin wasn’t great to the poor
The third international was not the third reich
For that hitler’d have to have killed millions more
/ G C / F C / G C / F G /
(III)
And kulaks lie buried, down in the mass graves
Killed by a famine, made by a man
Who thought grain would serve better, outside the ukraine
Five million starve for a new five-year plan
/ F C / F C / F C / F G /
(I)
There’s a lot of ideas from the last century
That made sense at the time, but it seems to me
Solidarity for workers may seem a bit dated
If all the jobs that they work become automated 
(II)
The unions sold out their more radical kin
To get better treatment from the boss man
They need permission to strike, and on a timeline
They make sure their employers approve of the plan
(III)
This is not to say we must live without cause or hope
Boil our brains, with entertainment and dope
Living our lives by the legends of yore
Escaping the reality our brains evolved for
(I)
We can think, we can learn, with our compounded skill
If we can imagine a future worth living, we will
Rise to the occasion, and keep up the fight
Against our own bias, to figure what’s right
(II)
Or if we don’t, we’ll allow our paranoia to win
And squander our limited time
What are you hiding, what is your game?
Brain surrendered, in whole, to make space for the groupmind
(III*)
Well I for one, must wholeheartedly doubt
That humans already figured politics out
In a way that can be summarized in a few books or tracts
I think living a good life entails constant search for the facts
/ F C / F C / F C / F GG7 / C /

Questions about this song? Email me at gibson@gibson.show