Lyrics
The global balance of terror
Pioneered by the United States and the Soviet Union
Holds hostage all the citizens of the earth
Each side persistently proves the limits of the other's tolerance
Like the Cuban Missile Crisis?
The testing of anti-satellite weapons
The Vietnam and Afghanistan wars
The hostile military establishments are locked in some
Gasping mutual embrace
Each needs the other
But the balance of terror is a delicate balance
Very little margin for miscalculation
And the world impoverishes itself by spending
A trillion dollars a year on preparations for war
And by employing perhaps
Half the scientists and high-technologists on the planet
In military endeavors
How would we explain all this to a dispassionate
Extraterrestrial observer?
(Extraterrestrial observer)
(Extraterrestrial observer)
(Extraterrestrial observer)
(Observer)
(Observer)
(Observer)
(Observer)
(Observer)
(Observer)
(Observer)
(Observer)
(Observer)
(Observer)
(Observer)
(Observer)
What account would we give of our stooge of a Planet Earth?
We have heard the rationales offered by the superpowers
We know who speaks for the nations
But who speaks for the species?
Who speaks for Earth?
(Who speaks for Earth?)
(Who speaks for Earth?)
(Who speaks for Earth?)
(Who speaks for Earth?)
(Who speaks for Earth?)
From an extraterrestrial perspective
Our global civilization's clearly an edge failure
In the most important task it faces
Preserving the lives and well-being of its citizens
And the future habitability of the planet
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
(The planet)
But, if we're willing to live with
The growing likelihood of nuclear war
Shouldn't we also be willing to explore
Vigorously
Every possible means to prevent nuclear war?
Shouldn't we consider in every nation
Major changes in the traditional ways of doing things?
A fundamental restructuring
Of economic, political, social, and religious institutions?
We've reached a point where there can be no more
Special interests or special cases
Nuclear arms threaten every person on the Earth!
Fundamental changes in society are
Sometimes labeled
"Impractical" or
"Contrary to human nature"
As if nuclear war were practical!
Or as if there were only one human nature
But fundamental changes can clearly be made
We're surrounded by them!
In the last two centuries abject slavery
Which was with us for thousands of years
Has been almost entirely been eliminated in a
Stirring, worldwide revolution
Women
Systematically mistreated for millennia
Are gradually gaining the political and economic power
Traditionally denied
And some wars of aggression have recently been stopped or curtailed
Because of a
Revulsion felt for the people in the aggressor nations
The old appeals
To racial, sexual, religious chauvinism
And to rabid, nationalist fervor
Are beginning not to work
A new consciousness is developing which sees the earth as a
Single organism
And recognizes
That an organism at war with itself
Is doomed
We are one planet!