How ironic that now, that the prediction of this song of a New Dark Ages comes from the far left postmodernists and not the far right fundamentalists. Socialism fails everywhere brutally where it has been tried, and now it takes actual faith to believe it can work and belief that everyone but a straight white male is oppressed. Social media is used as an attack platform for anyone that doesn't fit the new order.

The death of reason is here if moderates on both sides don't defeat this radical ideology before it's too late...with reason, logic, truth, and understanding.

I won't pretend to analyze this entire song. Honestly, I don't completely understand all of it--for instance what does "Ezekial's Call" mean? Someone enlighten me. Even so, I think this song deals with an idea I once heard (and unfortunately I can't remember the source) which goes something like this: The more we try to escape our origins, the more violently we are drawn back to them. Here are some of the thoughts the lyrics in this song triggered for me:

"Our kin will be emaculate, ejaculate in space." There are amazing, almost incomprohensible technological advances which are coming our way. The futurist Ray Kurzweil believes in the not too distant future we will have microchips in our brain which will enable a computing/intellectual capacity that is billions of times faster than our current capacities. (here are some useful links for insight on these upcoming developments: www.jetpress.org and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_of_the_Future The real problem is that this is bound to heighten inequality. It's long been known that "early adopters (ie. those which have money and access) have a competitive advantage. So the more advanced we become, the more unequal we may also become.

"Because we're animals with golden rules, who...who can't be moved by rational views." I really like the way Gurewitz does a slight pause with "who." It really emphasizes the gravity of that simple and austere statement. Evolutionary Psychology points to the real motors of human behavior. This article nicely illustrates both the assumptions of EP and, well, human inclination in general: http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/EP06603612.pdf
Keeping the above Gurewitz quote in mind, and adding the assumptions of EP psychology, it is clear that what is optimal for the individual and what is best for the collective are not always in harmonious allignment. Furthermore, essentially waste and displays of status, if you subscribe to EP theory, are rewarded. When you add technology to the mix, it's difficult to see how the EP assumptions of behaviors that promote successful human courtship and a sustaibable future are compatible. The more we understand, the more we realize we are constrained, if not completely determined by our evolutionary heritage.

Finally, Gurewitz's title for this song, "New Dark Ages." Reminded me a lot of a phrase Robert Cialdini used in his book about persuasion, "Influence." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini) Cialdini talked about "primitive automaticity" characterizing the modern age. Basically, our lives are so complex that when making decisions we need to rely on simple, well-trusted clues. If we hope to operate at any functional level in modern society, we simply do not have the capacity or opportunity to frequently make rational, well-informed decisions. More often than not, we must take short-cuts ("heuristics"). When I finished my service in Peace Corps I heard two facts, that at the time were rather astounding to me: a) in the last generation, due to television, the size of the visual processing regions of the neocortex has increased by 50% on average and b) when a potential employer sees a resume s/he has usually made a decsion to reject or accept the application for further review after 11 seconds. As a former boss of mine once quipped: "I can spot a bad resume in 7 seconds, I can spot a really bad one in about 3 seconds." As Gurewitz claims, due to the increased need for efficiency, vastly expanded network of social relations, and greater inclination to rely on visual cues., "we're living in the new dark ages." As our society becomes more advanced and developed, the individuals within it must rely on more primitive techniques to inform their decisions within that society.

Gurewitz has penned a quality tune. With just a few poignant lines he articulates how a society can often take one step forward and at the same time take one (if not more...) step back at the same time. After contemplaing Gurewitz's song, i'm left with a question: are these modern developments, which Gurewitz deftly manages to allude to, making us less rational and more primitive or are they simply unveiling the principles that have always governed our behavior? I'm inclined to believe the latter.

In the dark ages, everyone thought the world would end because they believed some biblical prophecy was being fulfilled. The Black Plague, the wars...etc. It is used in reference to modern-day Christian-based beliefs that the world is going to end soon because pretty much the same thing is happening now. Also, because it's appropriate-in the dark ages, the Catholic church would do surmons in Latin so they would not be understood. I'm guessing he also compairs that to today where the government hides certain valuable information from the public. It's scary to think that the Catholic church was responsible for the cruisades that forced conversion and slaughtered those who wouldn't comply.