Courtesy of Handsome Tours.

What kind of AU columnist would I be if I didn’t write an article that somehow directly involved politics and different viewpoints? I mean, this is the most politically active campus in the nation, so surely you‰’ll find people who like music and politics. You‰’re reading the words of one right now. (No, I‰’m not a poli-sci major nor am I in SIS. Yes, Business and Entertainment majors exist and yes we care about politics). Anyway, this week we‰’ll be looking at the first single off The Shins‰’ sophomore record (and my personal favorite), Chutes too Narrow, “So Says I.‰”

(The music video makes the meaning of the song incredibly apparent, but doesn‰’t go as in depth as I plan to – it does give a general overview, though. Albeit somewhat abstract. And with penguins.)

In the first few verses, James Mercer spins the tale of a society that lives under a socialist, perhaps even communist, rule. However, he weaves in the reasons why a centrally planned, socialist economy will fail.

And it told of a new design

In which every soul is duty bound 

To uphold all the statues of boredom therein lies 

The fatal flaw of the red age

Because it was nothing like we’d ever dreamt 

Our lust for life had gone away with the rent we hated 

And because it made no money nobody saved no one’s life

In a completely egalitarian society, where there is no innovation and thus no drive to be successful, people get really fucking bored. That is the “fatal flaw of the red age.‰” Nobody really made any money – it was all for the good of society. And eventually the society will collapse due to a lack of innovation. This theme of forced egalitarianism is all over the works of Russian-American author Ayn Rand, especially in her novella Anthem.

Courtesy of The Obsessed Reader.

I won‰’t go too in depth with a summary of the book (this is a music site, after all), but the plot deals with a society where the concept of the individual does not exist. There are no singular pronouns, and everything is centrally planned. The protagonist, Equality 7-2521, has high capacities for thinking and is seen as a threat to the society and assigned a job as a street sweeper. However, this menial task allows for him to do more thinking, fall in love, and [spoiler alert] rediscover the concept of individuality and dare to love the woman he wants to. Minor heavy-handedness aside, the novella explores the themes that Mercer alludes to: why a centrally planned economy is doomed to fail. (You should totally read the book – it‰’s less than 100 pages and at least interesting)

However, Mercer does not leave free-market capitalism off the hook. The next verse discusses how it, the seeming “natural‰” course, ends in what seems like a failure:

So we burned all our uniforms 

And let nature take its course again 

And the big ones just eat all the little ones 

That sent us back to the drawing board

This addresses one of the most common complaints that many have with capitalism – that the big corporations – typically associated with the “Robber Barons‰” of the 19th Century such as Andrew Carnegie – will get so incredibly large that they will swallow up any smaller competition.

Courtesy of Forbex Success Stories.

While this factually did occur, the argument placed by many is that this is not morally right. In saying “that sent us back to the drawing board,‰” Mercer doesn‰’t take a hardline stance against Capitalism, but instead alludes to the fact that something doesn‰’t seem right about it.

The final verses are the most telling of Mercer‰’s opinions on the human race. They may be brief, but they are some of the strongest on the entire Chutes too Narrow record and possibly the band‰’s entire catalog.

We‰’ve got rules and maps and guns in our backs 

But we still can’t just behave ourselves 

Even if to save our own lives (so says I) we are a brutal kind

Because this is nothing like we’d ever dreamt 

Tell Sir Thomas More we’ve got another failed attempt 

Because if it makes them money they might just give you life this time

Here is where Mercer sums up everything he‰’s discussed in the song. Humanity, as a race, is very brutal. We possess the ability to destroy the entire planet with nuclear weapons, and Mercer is disgusted that we are unable to “behave ourselves” – settle things peacefully. Mercer also claims that as a result of humanity‰’s nature, the kind of utopia that Sir Thomas More envisioned in the 16th Century will never exist – they will always fail.

True to his apathetic nature, in “So Says I,‰” James Mercer forms a very pessimistic view of humanity. Nothing will ever be perfect due to our destructive, selfish nature. To Mercer, any form of economic planning is ruined by greed or boredom. No utopia will be reached, and essentially, humanity will continue to be the way it always will be: brutal.