The peace, civil rights, ecological and women's movements picked up steam in the 60's which caught the establishment a little off guard. Yet, by the time I wrote this song (1975) the status quo had done much to co-opt and ruin the integrity of each movement.

The egalitarian and humanitarian goals, many of them deeply ant-capitalistic, had morphed into images and industries ripe for profiteering. The revolution had become a marketable product complete with T-shirts, cigarette and beer brands, and theme songs for both Wall Street and Madison Avenue.

The establishment realized they had to do a better job selling the USA brand. They needed the people to become more loyal to its imperial objectives and to create more villains to have their fears make them come running back to the protective arms of Uncle Sam.

It was at this time that I became convinced that we were about to become members of a cult and that any deviation from pure trusting and fanatical patriotism was not going to be tolerated. Oblivion was written with this goal in mind.

I felt that soon we would become a totalitarian state whereby not only our actions, but our thoughts were to be monitored.

And the words they used to say
No longer emit from their brain
A little transistor placed in their head
Programmed info they were fed

In the coming surveillance state, we would renounce all freedoms for the fleeting possibility of safety. Those who resisted would be harassed, reprogrammed and jailed.

See them now salute the flag
Dissension no longer is their bag
Retarded rebels their hands quake
For their tongues were their big mistake

The time when all citizens would be rendered into cowardly sheep was not far away.

No more crime in the streets
A stagnant smile is all you meet
Between freedom and security
Man always chose his stability

Accepting his dependence on and servitude to Big Brother the average person would be content to just get by and make ends meet. Each freedom and right removed would be met by the servile belief that tomorrow will be a better day.

His fear of death destroyed him
At all costs got his protection
Live for tomorrow was his theme
But is there really a today

Yet, for those with a glimmer of memory of how it felt to have a bit of privacy, freedom and autonomy the vivacity of the past still seeped into the steel grey veneer of the day.

And the little house we have made
Has turned into a living grave
Oh just for a little originality
I’m so tired of this damn purity

Yet, the vision of this coming nightmare has me yell out to my contemporaries to bring the tyrants to their knees before they bring us to ours. When we or another, whether it be us or them:

Oblivion will bring them to their knees
Oblivion will bring them to their knees