How (Remastered)
The last question-word song, built on polarity: winning and losing are two ends of the same thing. It's me asking whether a win is worth what it costs, being willing to lose a battle to win the war, and questioning the easy answers I was handed about how to live.
If you lose the battle, but win the war (The war)
Is that reason to be sore
If you're still standing at the end
Is it worth loss of a friend
We're told that life is good
If we do what we're told
Escape your neighborhood
Work till wallet doesn't fold
We're told that life is bad
If we don't fall into line
Just making angels sad
Now is not our time
Just listen and obey
They're lying to your face
Just do what they say
And end the human race
If you lose the battle, but win the war (The war)
Is that reason to be sore
If you're still standing at the end
Is it worth loss of a friend
Is your life better now
Than four years ago
Was it better then somehow
And either way, why so
Did it matter a little bit
Or to smaller efforts mean
Who in the big chair sits
How the course of your life leans
People need an enemy
To know they have some worth
We can feel the threat unseen
Against the planet Earth
If you lose the battle, but win the war (The war)
Is that reason to be sore
If you're still standing at the end
Is it worth loss of a friend
We're told to be the best
Work hard, be good, conform
Could be the president
If you can perform
You can be in charge
Up there on the stage
Living life so large
Just another cage
The rats run on the wheel
Chase cheese, flee prod
Man with clipboard doesn't feel
For the rat at all
If you lose the battle, but win the war (The war)
Is that reason to be sore
If you're still standing at the end
Is it worth loss of a friend
Whether hope, or out of fear
Chance for change or chicken pot
We're still running on that wheel
Just as tightly caught
Everything is everything
By definition
Gender, equality, or shame
It's all being human
No one's wholly good nor bad
No one's awful, no one's fine
No one's all woman nor man
Labels just a waste of time
If you lose war, but win the battle
Does it even really matter
If you're not standing at the end
Was it worth it that we're friends