I don't have to tell you things are bad
Everybody knows things are bad
It's a depression
Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job
A dollar buys a nickel's worth
Banks are going bust
Shop keepers keep a gun under the counter
Punks are running wild in the street
And there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do with it
There's no end to it
We know the air is unfit to breath and our food is unfit to eat
We sit watching our TVs while some local news caster tell us that today we had 15 homicides
And 63 violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be
We know things are bad, worse than bad
They're crazy
It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore
We sit in a house and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller and all we say is:
"Please at least leave us alone in our living rooms.
Let me have my toaster, my TV, my steel belted radials, and I won't say anything.
Just leave us alone!"
But I'm not going to leave you alone
I want you to get mad
I don't want you to protest
I don't want you to riot
I don't want you to write to your congressmen because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write
I don't know what to do about the depression, and inflation
And the Russians, and the crime in the street
All I know is that first you've got to get mad
You've got to say:
"I'm a human being dammit.
My life has value!"
I want you to get up now
I want all of you to get out of your chairs
I want you to get up right now
And go to the window, open it
And stick your head out, and yell:
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"