THE MOB

(Do you know who Akira The Don is?)
(Of course, he's amazing)

I only desire the approval of a relatively small number of people who I respect
If they said to me, "I think you're totally wrong on this Douglas"
Then I'd listen
But when it's people who don't want me to do well
Then of course I don't listen to them
It's one of the tools we all have to hone in our lives
To work out who wants us to do well, who wishes us well
And to listen to them, even If they're critical of us
And they will be at times
And to separate out those people from the people who just
Of course they don't want you to do well

They hate you, they hate everything about you, and whatever
But I don't have much sympathy with public figures
Who say, I can't say what I think, I can't speak up and all this sort of thing
If you're not going to now, when are you going to?
If you're not going to in this life,
What life are you expecting to come
Where you'll do it?

The person who doesn't stand with the mob
The person who doesn't go along with the mob
The person who refuses to walk with the crowd
Will feel better

The person who doesn't stand with the mob
The person who doesn't go along with the mob
Will achieve more in their lives, whatever that is
Because they will have self-respect

I'm comfortable
As comfortable as you can be in the end times
As everything's burning down
And there's plagues of Locusts coming our way
And I have the satisfaction
Of knowing that I'm not lying

The problem with going along
Is that it demoralizes you
It makes you a smaller person, inside
You will be demoralized
Because you'll know that you shouldn't have done that
And at some level, you will think badly of yourself for having done it
You'll feel regretful
You'll feel cowardly
And it will affect your life in other ways
And the opposite is also true

The person who doesn't stand with the mob
The person who doesn't go along with the mob
The person who refuses to walk with the crowd
Will feel better

The person who doesn't stand with the mob
The person who doesn't go along with the mob
Will achieve more in their lives, whatever that is
Because they will have self-respect

That's what totalitarian movements across history always knew
Was you grind people down and make them agree to the lies
Because you will then be able to make them do anything
Vaclav Havel, great late Czech leader
Cites the example of a greengrocer in Prague in the Communist era in Eastern Europe
Who has to put up in his window
Like everyone else, the notice that says
Workers of the world, unite!
And it's sent by party headquarters to all greengrocers
And you all have to hang it

And Vaclav Havel says a number of things happened from this
The first thing is that, of course
That the greengrocer is showing to everyone
That he is a party loyalist
And he wouldn't be able to operate as a business If he didn't do this thing
But it also hangs there every day as a sign of his subjugation
It's a little thing, but it hangs there as a sign of his subjugation
And it reminds him that he's not the man he could be

You think you're doing a little thing, but you're not
You are diminishing your soul by doing this
Because you know that you could be something more
Than the person who just has to hang whatever party headquarters
Tells you to hang this week

The person who doesn't stand with the mob
The person who doesn't go along with the mob
The person who refuses to walk with the crowd
Will feel better

The person who doesn't stand with the mob
The person who doesn't go along with the mob
Will achieve more in their lives, whatever that is
Because they will have self-respect