(Preliminary note: If you deny climate change and its impact on human civilisation, there’s no need to read any further. This isn’t a personal attack on you, but I can’t discuss arithmetic with people who doubt that one plus one equals two – it simply makes no sense and is exhausting for everyone involved)
The idea for ‘God’ came to me one afternoon as I was clicking my way through the sad remnants of SPIEGEL Online (short aside for English readers: The web page of German news magazine SPIEGEL was for a long time comparable to the UK’s “Guardian”. Unfortunately, they managed to completely fuck it up with ads, paywalls and lifestyle bullshit, so that it has more or less become unreadable).
There was talk of people who had driven round in circles in very fast cars faster than other people, and who were therefore now getting millions of ducats, or whatever.
It was reported how investors on the stock markets had reacted to some rubbish spouted by some bloke who hadn’t spent a single day of his life doing any work.
There were reports of lifestyle influencers earning millions by holding this or that product up to the camera.
There was talk of war, and how they’re bashing each other’s skulls in again in the Middle East, and whether or not we should send combat drones there for millions of ducats. And the question was raised as to whether our soldiers would be prepared to defend the fatherland if Putin completely loses it just a little bit more.
A footballer was sold from one club to another for millions of ducats, or something like that.
And of course, God came up again and again, because the Pope had said something, and the people bashing each other’s heads in are certain that their respective God is on their side, and the Nazis in America believe that if you believe in God, you have to vote for them, or something like that.
And so on and so on.
And then I thought of God, and what He must think of the massive mess humanity is currently making of things.
And then I sat there, and it dawned on me just how incredibly sad and ridiculous it all is.
Humanity is facing its greatest challenge.
Anyone who reads the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change can see clear as day just how much future generations will suffer if we fail to tackle climate change seriously.
And we are failing to do so.
All we can do is: hand out millions of ducats to people who actually do nothing, bash each other’s heads in, and blame one god or another for it. God should protect our people, and God should lead us to victory. Meanwhile, we’re voting the Nazis into governments because of course the evil cat-eating foreigners are getting all the ducats that we’re not getting, we’re ignoring science and research and all the pathetic well-educated do-gooders, we’re letting kings rule us, and as for the rest, well, God will sort it out.
Phew. I feel so very sorry for God.
I don’t want to come across as preachy on Strategies… or tell people how stupid they are. That sort of thing achieves nothing. Those people don’t listen to my music anyway, and even if they did, it would only serve to reinforce their ‘opinion’.
“God” is not a moral lecture, but simply my very personal grappling with just how terribly pathetic all of this is – and that I genuinely feel sorry for God.
Actually, I hadn’t planned for the song to turn out so dark. I’d mainly conceived it as ironic, which is still evident in the fact that I sing the lyrics like a priest intoning a liturgy (and anyone who knows me can well imagine that I was wearing my most scathing smile when singing lines like “God bless our heroes on the racing track”)
But over time, the song grew darker and darker – simply because it isn’t a funny subject. Because people are suffering, and even more people will suffer even more in the future.
And in principle, I couldn’t care less about any of it, because I don’t have any children, and I’m not going to have any.
But other people just keep bringing them into the world like there’s no tomorrow – especially those who like to think of themselves as being equipped with plenty of God™.
To be honest, I don’t know who I feel more sorry for – God, or these children.
P.S.: The deep, rumbling drone that can be heard repeatedly on ‘God’ is the sound of the Antarctic ice shelf shifting – and how it doesn’t care which clown is leading the world’s most powerful nation, or which racing driver has put his foot down harder than the next.
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