I’ve been enjoying this song by Andrew Bird called Tables and Chairs. It’s a nice corrective to the kind of ascetic-activist denial-of-fun to which I and some of my political co-conspirators can be prone. (Who said that thing about if I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution?) The song ends:
I know we’re going to meet some day
in the crumbled financial institutions of this land
There will be tables and chairs
there’ll be pony rides and dancing bears
there’ll even be a band
Cause listen, after the fall there’ll be no more countries
no currencies at all
We’re gonna live on our wits
gonna throw away survival kits
trade butterfly-knives for adderal
And that’s not all, ooh-ooh!
There will be snacks! There will!
There will be snacks!
There will be, there will be snacks!
The song reminded me of when I first got to college and learned about “The Revolution.” Hippies at my school were always talking about how things would be after the revolution, including how pot would be legal, and we wouldn’t have to wear shoes anymore (they were jumpstarting this pre-rev on campus). There was also talk of how after the revolution, food would be free. Regarding the latter I imagined myself going to eat at the Olive Garden in town, and at the end of my meal, after stuffing myself with breadstick and salad refills, I’d get to leave without paying the bill. Finally, truly free refills! The idea that after the revolution there would no longer be table service, much less Olive Gardens, did not occur to me. But then again, I also kept my shoes on.
You can listen to the song by clicking below, cause I embed things like that.

Tables and Chairs - Andrew Bird:
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