Sophist Almanac

世界について知りたいとき

Rap ① Prince Ea (Richard William) のあふれる言葉のちから - 「この世は終わりに近づいてる」のパラドックス

 

f:id:classlovesophia:20170915021245p:plain

  

かなり現象となった Richard Wiliialms の 「この世は終わりに近づいてる」というラップ。えっ、なになに、この世の終末? どういう意味? 

 

Paradox とは、逆説。つまり一見すると、間違っているあるいは矛盾し不合理のようにみえるけれども、実際には真実をずばっと表していく rhetoric (修辞) 。

 

反対に、一見すると本物のように見えるけど、悪質な偽物だというものも、いっぱいこの世にはありますね。フェイクニュースなんかがそれです。

 

Williams は、この世は終わりに近づいている、終わるべきなんだ、というけど、それはどういう意味なのか、

 

感動するよ。じっくり聞いてみよ !

 

 

Why I Think This World Should End

 

youtu.be

 

 Prince Ea - Wikipedia

Richard Williams, better known by his stage name Prince Ea, is an American spoken word artist, poet, rapper and filmmaker. After graduating from the University of Missouri–St. Louis with a degree in anthropology, he initially pursued a career as a hip hop artist. Inspired by artists like Immortal Technique and Canibus, he started and popularized the "Make S.M.A.R.T Cool" movement to promote values like intelligence, free thought, unity, and creativity in hip hop music and culture.

In 2014, Prince Ea shifted his focus from music to creating motivational and inspirational spoken word films and content. His YouTube videos have received over half a billion views, and cover a wide range of topics such as environmentalism, race, work–life balance and spirituality. He credits his shift in perspective to the inspiration of ancient wisdom texts such as the Tao Te Ching and Bhagavad Gita.

 

The world is coming to an end

The air is polluted, the oceans contaminated

The animals are going extinct, the economy's collapsed

Education is shot, police are corrupt

Intelligence is shunned and ignorance rewarded

The people are depressed and angry

We can't live with each other and we can't live with ourselves

So everyone's medicated

We pass each other on the streets

And if we do speak it's meaningless robotic communication

More people want 15 seconds of fame

Than a lifetime of meaning and purpose

Because what's popular is more important than what's right

Ratings are more important than the truth

Our government builds twice as many prisons than schools

It's easier to find a Big Mac than an apple

And when you find the apple

It's been genetically processed and modified

Presidents lie, politicians trick us

Race is still an issue and so is religion

Your God doesn't exist, my God does and he is All-Loving

If you disagree with me I'll kill you

Or even worse argue you to death

92% of songs on the radio are about sex

Kids don't play tag, they play twerk videos

The average person watches 5 hours of television a day

And it's more violence on the screen than ever before

Technology has given us everything we could ever want

And at the same time stolen everything we really need

Pride is at an all time high, humility, an all time low

Everybody knows everything, everybody's going somewhere

Ignoring someone, blaming somebody

Not many human beings left anymore, a lot of human doings

Plenty of human lingerings in the past, not many human beings

Money is still the root of all evil

Yet we tell our kids don't get that degree

The jobs don't pay enough

Good deeds are only done when there's a profit margin

Videos of the misfortunes of others go viral

We laugh and share them with our friends to laugh with us

Our role models today

60 years ago would have been examples of what not to be

There are states where people can legally be discriminated against Because they were born a certain way

Companies invest millions of dollars hiring specialists to make Little girls feel like they need "make up" to be beautiful Permanently lowering their self esteem

Because they will never be pretty enough

To meet those impossible standards

Corporations tell us buy, buy, buy, get this, get that

You must keep up, you must fit in

This will make you happy, but it never does for long

So what can we do in the face of all of this madness and chaos?

What is the solution? We can love

Not the love you hear in your favorite song on the radio

I mean real love, true love, boundless love             

You can love, love each other

From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed

Perform an act of kindness because that is contagious

We can be mindful during every interaction

Planting seeds of goodness

Showing a little more compassion than usual

We can forgive

Because 300 years from now will that grudge you hold against Your friend, your mother, your father have been worth it?

Instead of trying to change others we can change ourselves

We can change our hearts

We have been sold lies

Brainwashed by our leaders and those we trust

To not recognize our brothers and sisters

And to exhibit anger, hatred and cruelty

But once we truly love we will meet anger with sympathy

Hatred with compassion, cruelty with kindness

Love is the most powerful weapon on the face of the Earth

Robert Kennedy once said that

Few will have the greatness to bend history

But each of us can work to change a small portion of events

And in the total of all those act

Will be written in the history of a generation

So yes, the world is coming to an end

And the path towards a new beginning starts within you