Your Next Bold Move Lyrics

"It's one of those [songs where I'm] looking back; that's the song that starts out, "coming of age during the plague of Reagan and Bush." Just really trying to recognize the surreal journey of, "how did we get here as a society?" 1980 and the election of Reagan really was the turning point and, I think, just started this scourge of conservativism and destruction and terror and horror that we continue to live within. Evidence: Bush II. Another thing that contributes to the deflated energy of that song is [the absence of] hopefulness about the American attention span, as dictated and decimated by the media, by television, and as controlled by corporations as it is now. Because of Ralph Nader and the Freedom of Information Act, we have all of this information, for instance, about how the FBI destroyed progressive political movements in this country -- well, didn't destroy, but completely undercut the power and the effectiveness of, and the momentum of, what was happening throughout the early and mid-seventies by infiltrating movements and creating in-fighting and destroying leaders such as Abbie Hoffman, by framing him on drug charges and making him go underground, and of course all of the dynamic political leaders of that day being shot, being just taken out of commission. Cointelpro, the consolidated effort of the FBI and the CIA and our national government to destroy the Left, had such a huge effect. And then the strong-arming of the Right, starting in the 80s, in the wake of that decimating of the Left, brought us to this pretty perilous place, where corporations do own the government, they do control our culture, they are usurping every aspect of our lives as citizens, and it's harder and harder, like in that song, "they're buying and selling off shares of air," and, "it's as easy as breathing to participate." It's so hard to begin to deconstruct that as citizens. So it's not a happy little ditty, I guess." - Ani DiFranco