TWENTY ØNE PILØTS’ second signed album, Blurryface, has a great song on it that’s playing on iPhones across America. The song is catchy and seems upbeat, until you pay attention to the heart wrenching lyrics. His life has been crushed by a woman, seemingly the topic of 90% of songs ever sung. Except there’s this jewel in the middle.
The singer cares about this woman so much – who apparently tore a hole in his heart — that he resents the small things in life that cause her discomfort. Tyler Joseph sings:
You fell asleep in my / Car. I drove the whole time / But that’s okay / I’ll just avoid the holes so you sleep fine / I’m driving here. I sit / Cursing my government / For not using my taxes / To fill holes with more cement.
At the risk of reading too much into a pop song, I like this because TWENTY ØNE PILØTS inadvertently express the simplicity of what Americans want from their governments — we want problems solved that we can’t do ourselves.
As much as we love self-governance, you don’t want individuals out there fixing the roads. Our taxes pay for the government to keep the roads up and do the things we can’t do. And that’s pretty much it. The government (especially the federal government) has so encroached into every area of life, it’s hard to remember a time when they weren’t involved in the conversations we had about healthcare, education, and even marriage.
That’s why I love this song.
Americans want the government to protect life, liberty and property.
Wouldn’t it be nice if they would focus on the small, every day details of governance, and — once all the potholes are filled — leave us alone?
Here’s this great song… let it become your anthem if you are a heartbroken fan of self-governance. (And isn’t that all of us during this modern political climate?)
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