It took me 3000 words to say what System of a Down said in 35…
Honestly it is a curse to have spent so many years in school… Academia has a way of making it impossible for a person to write succinctly and clearly. I have now spent the past few years unlearning bad habits from years of graduate school. No one cares about any of this so back to my main point…
I am writing an article about the so-called “war on drugs” and its impact on young women of color. I really hate what I have written so far. When that happens, I decide to listen to music to get my mind off the pain of writing. So I put in my Black on Both Sides CD by Mos Def. Halfway through listening to the song “Mathematics”, I decided to chuck everything that I had just written. I turned off the CD player and went to lie down. Some lyrics just have a way of making things plain.
For example, in under 35 words, System of a Down said what I still could not convey in 3000. Here’s the relevant passage from their song called “Prison Song:”
all research and successful drug policy show
that treatment should be increased
and law enforcement decreased
while abolishing mandatory minimum sentences
they’re trying to build a prison
(for you and me to live in).
There you have it folks. There is no way to top the eloquence and simplicity of these words. So now this is the standard. I am going to tell the editor of the journal that she should call System of a Down and ask them to write the essay about how the war on drugs impacts women of color. They’re likely to send back two sentences that say it all…
Note: When I first posted this I was thinking about System of a Down’s “Prison Song” but I had been listening to “Mathematics” and attributed Prison Song’s lyrics to Mos Def. Thanks to a comment from a reader, I finally re-read the post and recognized my error. My apologies…
Uncategorized | prison culture | 09 February 2011 |
By Kim, February 10, 2011 @ 11:39 am
The exact same lines are used in a great System of a Down song called Prison Song. For those who are into a harder sound 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yndfqN1VKhY
By prison culture, February 10, 2011 @ 12:46 pm
Hi Kim, you are OF COURSE right and that it what I was thinking of when I wrote the original post. I need to get sleep. I was listening to Mathematics and recalled “Prison Song” and decided to post something about the lyrics to that song… I need more sleep.