[Intro — whispered over Rhodes] Everybody agrees. So— it must be true. Right? ⸻ [Verse 1] I checked the room before I checked myself, counted every nod on somebody else. Three hearts, ten likes, a thousand little signs— consensus drawing straight lines through my mind. No one said I had to follow, but silence has a heavy sound. So I trimmed the edges, softened every question, until my strange idea could fit the crowd. ⸻ [Pre-Chorus — 5/4] Measure the distance from thought to approval. Normalize doubt. Remove the unusual. If nobody objects, call it refined. If everyone agrees— archive the mind. ⸻ [Chorus] Targeting consensus, aiming at the middle. Every sharp idea gets rounded just a little. Targeting consensus, safe enough to share. Not because I wanted this— because everybody’s there. Smooth every corner. Lower every risk. Perfectly acceptable. Easy to dismiss. Targeting consensus— and somehow, nothing hits. ⸻ [Instrumental Break] Rhodes chord loop upright bass walks unevenly muted trumpet enters one beat late 5 — 5 — 7 — 4 breath click brush silence ⸻ [Verse 2] I asked the market what the market wants. The market answered with yesterday’s response. “More like this.” “Less like that.” “Something fresh— but not too strange.” So I painted innovation in familiar shades. Everyone loves a revolution after somebody else makes it safe. Every new road gets a warning sign: PROCEED ONLY WHEN VALIDATED. ⸻ [Pre-Chorus 2] Average the answers. Remove contradiction. Call the remainder user preference prediction. A hundred opinions compressed into one— then wonder why the future looks done. ⸻ [Chorus] Targeting consensus, aiming at the middle. Every sharp idea gets rounded just a little. Targeting consensus, safe enough to sell. Nothing here can frighten you. Nothing here can fail. Nothing here can haunt you. Nothing here can stay. Perfectly optimized to disappear someday. ⸻ [Bridge — spoken, almost dry] Consensus is useful. Sometimes. Bridges should probably stand. Medicine should probably work. But art? Ideas? Questions? If everybody already agrees— what exactly did you discover? ⸻ [Progressive Section — 7/8] One two three— approve. Four five— improve. Six seven— remove. Anything that doesn’t move with the groove of the room. ⸻ [Jazz Breakdown] Saxophone enters dissonant, then intentionally resolves too early. Too strange? Reduce it. Too quiet? Boost it. Too complex? Simplify. Too personal? Generalize. Too new? Reference something successful. Too alive? Optimize. ⸻ [Final Chorus — wider harmony] Targeting consensus, perfectly aligned. A thousand borrowed compasses pointing at the same design. Targeting consensus, nobody left behind— except the thing that nobody else had ever thought to find. Let the numbers settle. Let the metrics speak. If everybody wants it, maybe it’s already obsolete. ⸻ [Outro — tape slowing] The room agrees. The dashboard glows. The target turns green. And somewhere outside the confidence interval— something new walks away unseen. click. Consensus reached.
