Songs From The Age Of Human Error by Kerry Jackson-Kay

A man on an island, but with ancestors from foreign lands
Despairs of the fate of his people
Invaded by faces and colours and words he can’t understand
He spits out testosterone
He has warrior blood in his genes
Too bad it never made it to his brain
‘Cause there ain’t no courage to be seen
Could it be he’s a racist?
Could it be he’s just frightened?
What he is is an idiot
Everything else is just a symptom.

And all he sees around is Queer Folk
He wonders what’s the world coming to
By force of personality he’s decided more lesbians
Than any other agent could do
He knows all he needs to know
The papers spell it all out so clear
Perverts and homos and lifters and freaks
Had better never show their faces round here
Could it be he’s a homophobe?
Could it be he’s just frightened?
What he is is an idiot
Everything else is just a symptom.

Standing in the safety of his self-importance
Dividing the world into Them And Me
God forbid things might be more complicated
His Dad always taught him
He knows what’s right and what’s wrong
The right’s in the mirror, the wrong’s over there
And bullying makes a man strong
Could it be he’s a bigot?
Could it be he’s just frightened?
What he is is an idiot
Everything else is just a symptom.

Could it be he’s frustrated?
Could it be he’s just frightened?
What he is is an idiot
Everything else is just a symptom.

credits
from Songs From The Age Of Human Error, released November 7, 2015
Words and music by Kerry Jackson-Kay
Performed and produced by Kerry Jackson-Kay

Pretty self-explanatory, this one.  I wrote it around 2004 at a time when I was consciously avoiding writing political songs (I was never a fan of t-shirt politics in music or elsewhere) and wanted to write a catch-all song to deride the assortment of bigotted views I actually did want to attack.  

I’ll admit to cleaning up the more profane original title of the song for this recording – in my younger days I thought the sentiment called for a stronger word, but now I actually prefer the blunt insolence of the simple ‘idiot’.