Why Write a Letter That You'll Never Send

We don't write letters anymore
There ain't the time or place
But a friend of mine wrote something
Like a letter yesterday
It was smuggled through my inbox
Just this morning, 3:00 AM
More impotent than important
Let me read it now, verbatim

He says: I got that same old feeling
The one that turns the birds to brutes
The sky is like a bad dream
And the earth is in cahoots
I don't believe no one no more
I don't care what no one says
I just want to make the world
A much less painful place
And we look fonder on the good old days
As they drift further away
But why, if everyone feels so homesick
Are they always settin' sail?
'Cause it's all bad news up there on deck
And each headland masks the next
I'd just as soon dive in the ocean
And forgo the blood and sweat
And forgo all aspirations
They just put everyone at odds
If idle hands are the Devil's work
Then where's the time for God's?

Oh, yeah

Why write a letter that you'll never send
Away? (Why won't you)
Stay with me, wait and see
And all you need know
Nobody's perfect and their needs are always stark
(Stay with me) wait, you'll see
And all you need know
Everybody's hurting and their needs are always stark
(Stay with me) stay with me

And who cares about wars of choice and lands
Where states indulge their passions?
And all the new shoots just jackboot scoot
All dissent out of fashion
Like Fred Astaire's at a film premiere
That is all about them
It's stirring stuff, transformative
They don't care where they're sent
And they're all kiss-chasing childish dreams
Of a privileged masculinity
Till they're spent by shock and discharged home
To small town and big cities
And the rest of the type left are dying or dead
From just trying to be useful
They've been handy in the years gone by
And they'll be handy in the future
And who cares for their survival?
And who cares about the Yanks?
Who cares if they get overrun
By Chinese nukes and tanks?
And who cares about the Holocaust?
Man, we didn't learn nothing there
And all its memory does
Is keep the History Channel on air
And who cares about the Vatican?
Man, everybody knows
And who's surprised they went and chose
A Nazi for a Pope?
And who cares about fakes like anarchists?
Man, they never want to dance
Let's mambo Mogadishu
Give anarchy a chance
I'm saying life is cruel, you know it's true
But all sides still try to recruit ya
For Shangri-La's as practical
As doing a Kama Sutra

And why write a letter that you'll never send
Away? (Why won't you)
Stay with me, wait and see
And all you need know
Nobody's perfect and their needs are always stark
(Stay with me) wait, you'll see
And all you need know
Everybody's stressed the fact their needs are always stark
(Stay with me) stay with me

And who cares if the starving millions know
If it's Christmas or your birthday?
Or what movie star's in Africa or
The guy from you2 says?
Or all the statesmen never telling lies
As truth or gospel?
Who cares what's true or false?
The truth's the world won't go to hospital
But who needs to live forever?
And who needs the extra miles?
We won't need bees or seed banks
In the Arctic for a while
We play the game to start again
Not to better life for all
It's the appropriate opiate
When the better way's impossible
Some honesty now wouldn't go astray
And if not, well, what's the use?
We're animals, we can't help doing
What all animals do
So goodbye, my friend, I'm hitting send
Forgive me talking straight
I'm only trying to make the world
A much less painful place

And why write a letter that you'll never send
Away?
Away?
Away?
Away?
Away?