What Keeps Mankind Alive? from the Threepenny Opera Songtext

von William S. Burroughs

And now, the ballad of the question:
What keeps mankind alive?

You gentlemen who think you have a mission
To purge us of the seven deadly sins,
Should first sort out the basic food position.
Then start your preaching, that's where it all begins.

You lots who preach restraint and watch your waist as well,
Should learn for once the way the world is run.
However much you twist, or whatever lies you tell,
Food is the first thing. Morals follow on.

So first be sure that those, who are now starving
Get proper helpings, when we all start carving.

What keeps mankind alive?

What keeps mankind alive? the fact that millions
Are daily tortured, starved, silenced, and oppressed.
Mankind can keep alive thanks to his aptitude
For keeping his humanity repressed.

And now for once, you must try to face the facts:
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts!
And now for once, you must try to face the facts:
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts!