Yeah! Aha! Listen up! They landed in their business suits, hard heels on dusty tracks, And eyed the local people living in their simple shacks. One straightens out his tie; one wipes his goggles clear: “lGentlemen! You can’t be living comfortably here! No payment demands? No office queues to get through? No standing in straight lines? How does that work for you?! Listen up, you savages - your carefree days are through! We’ll bring you freedom… and a cage for each of you! We’ll build you paradise, all orderly and planned Just sign right here… and hand us all your land. Welcome to the wonders of civilization... First comes initiation, then identification, A tax code and a number - your new designation. Passport or ID - next stop: classification. Freedom with a stamp - that’s administration. From your first day at school - documentation, Rules, applications, then a signed declaration. Your bow’s not approved? Mandatory certification. Fishing or the forest? Quotas and regulation. Your hut needs a permit - check the land-use designation. Plot numbers, maps and endless rounds of calculation. Cut a tree? Fines and a court citation. Canoe on the water? Inspection, registration. Welcome to the wonders of civilization, Caught in forms and apps - a web of complication. Signs every few steps, waste sorted by regulation, Stress and bills included in your package of frustration. This is progress (progress) - forcing you to fit the mold, Where life’s another product, advertised and sold! Click “Accept” (Accept) and sign your soul away We’ll tell you what you must do, and what you may! Pensions, tax and VAT - your grown-up education, Payments, tax returns - a calendar of obligation. Need a doctor? Join the queue - no slots for consultation. Wait your turn - this is the height of civilization. Elections, slogans, all dressed up - a dazzling presentation, Voices echo back at you - they call it representation. Every new sign brings another wave of irritation; Freedom, once you’ve paid the fee - is still an imitation. Welcome to the wonders of civilization, Caught in forms and apps - a web of complication. Signs every few steps, waste sorted by regulation, Stress and bills included in your package of frustration. This is progress (progress) - forcing you to fit the mold, Where life’s another product, advertised and sold! Click “Accept” (Accept) and sign your soul away We’ll tell you what you must do, and what you may! Not hungry - just permanently agitated, Not free - but every one of you is neatly tabulated. Happy? Every part of life is legally regulated. That’s progress - human lives in rows, recorded and collated. So celebrate, my brothers, this new age of wonders: No tiger eats you here… you’re swallowed whole by numbers. All for their own good - a better life that’s built to last, To make them just like us, their trails and rivers left in the past. All in the name of order, all for standardization, Till they forget who they were before their registration. The chief who ruled this land, whose word they once obeyed, Now works a helpline, fighting to get his bonus paid. He tried to hunt a monkey, but permission was denied Monkeys in the Euro Parliament have the law on their side! Now the chief looks skyward, chained to a desk all day, A county clerk, his former grandeur stripped away. He cries out to his ancestors: “That fine? I will not pay!” The Great Spirit of Compound Interest calls down from the blue: “Sorry, Winnetou… your invoice is overdue.” No point in hiding - there’s no safe place to stay; Taxman’s Hawkeye’s on your trail. You’ll never get away. He’ll auction off your jungle, hut and clearing - all you own; In this new world, the taxman won’t leave even ghosts alone. Welcome to the wonders of civilization, Caught in forms and apps - a web of complication. Signs every few steps, waste sorted by regulation, Stress and bills included in your package of frustration. This is progress (progress) - forcing you to fit the mold, Where life’s another product, advertised and sold! Click “Accept” (Accept) and sign your soul away We’ll tell you what you must do, and what you may!
