The Map Has Become the Empire

This is an abridged version of the guitar part of a song I’m working on, ‘The Map Has Become the Empire’, which I wrote as a soundtrack to a spoken word piece - it articulates concerns I have about modern life, but like many of my songs, articulates a hope that this is the bottom we’re experiencing and it can only get better. The red light just makes it more metal :)

I’m in my Death t-shirt. I’m playing in my recent favourite tuning, A-E-B-F#-C#-F#. Anyway, it will probably change, but here’s the draft full-length song with words too as it exists today (just words, guitar and drum):

It’s probably influenced by bands of like Senser, RATM, Sleaford Mods, Idles, and such - I dunno. I’ve always liked music with a message. I won’t say my music is anywhere near as good as them of course, but it helps me process and articulate my feelings.

Words:

Its been gradually consigned into our lives

Injected into our gullible eyes

The kidnap, the backslap, the widening gap

The slow clap while we gather the scraps

Private profits and social losses

Needles so thin we barely notice

The pain of each injection

We live in a simulation

[chorus]

The map has become the empire,

we must appear, not be, to earn the prize

(we saw the simulation and died)

A copy with no original

A show put on us for full control

Better than the reality it steals

Yet too tangible to be unreal

We produce with engineered minds

We work to buy and buy back our time

We work to buy and buy back our freedom

Pacified by simulation

The map has become the empire

We saw the simulation and died

We see the map as a thin veneer

The real world is beautiful and near

We see the spectacle for what it is

This life is insufficient

We’re not separate from what we’re born with

And not desperate enough to believe the bullshit