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It’s the End of the World (But We Don’t Act Like It)
Why do Americans talk like the world is ending but behave like everything’s normal?
Like many middle schoolers in the late ’80s, I prided myself on being able to sing along with REM’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” I had the lyrics memorized — or at least what I thought the lyrics might be. But I never thought very hard about what Michael Stipe was saying. It was just a fast and frenetic tune full of verbal gymnastics.
But now I’m thinking about it. Stipe was always a pretty opaque lyricist and never liked to explain his songs. Is he lamenting the end of the world? Is he demonstrating a cheerful nonchalance in the face of disaster? Is he genuinely pleased that the world (as he knows it) is changing into something else? Or is he singing from the perspective of a typical American who sees the apocalypse rolling in and distracts himself with pop culture and materialism?
If that last guess is correct, REM was tapping into something very American. We seem to constantly believe that the apocalypse is around the corner, but behave as if truly bad things can never happen to us.
Yes, I’m talking about Donald Trump — what, these days, isn’t about him on some level? I’ll start with him, since he sucks up…
