General
Sometimes also referred to as We're Only Gonna Die From Our Own Arrogance, as it is the title which originally appeared in the liner notes to How Could Hell Be Any Worse?. In All Ages both titles are given to the song.
Inspiration
The lyrics of this song were inspired by the book Origins by Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin. Greg got this book from his mom for Christmas 1979. The book describes the evolution of human beings from our apelike ancestors.[1] The last lines from Origins:
"We are One People, and we can all strive for one aim: the peaceful and equitable survival of humanity. To have arrived on this earth as the product of a biological accident, only to depart it through arrogance, would be the ultimate irony."
Greg Graffin: "(We're Only Gonna Die) became a defining statement for Bad Religion. Looking back, what that song demonstrates to me is that I was already committed to seeing a coherent naturalistic worldview. But reading about science, and writing about it in music, proved to me that there is great compatibility in the arts and sciences. I wanted to be taken seriously as a songwriter, and the scientific worldview could be my inspiration."[2]
Song meaning
Graffin: "[T]he arrogance that I was talking about was the arrogance to believe that we can go on with our mass consumerism and the great disparities of quality of life on this planet and just ignore the have-nots. It's arrogant to believe that we can continue this for much longer without drastically affecting the populations. That doesn't necessarily mean extinction; it just means that we ignore those realities at our peril and that to me is arrogance."[3]
Piano
Some people haven't noticed the piano. It comes in at once with the acoustic guitar and is best heard during the word "took" (you'll hear two notes). Then it gets faster and faster with the hastening of the vocal part until it stops with "mind".
Covers
It has been covered by Biohazard, Sublime and the Trippin' Daisies.
Appearance in movie
The song can be heard in the movie Glory Daze.