Reading 'bout ideas passionate & big
Folks giving up life and love, for honor
Don't you also want to have such a cause
Of a fervent & bone-shaking genre?
Oh, to stand for something
To look in the eye and stare 'em down
Going down as one of a kind
In local history and gossip 'round town
But when life offers a consolation prize
In giving ocassion to do a thing small-but-right
You find yourself taking the street smart route
Wanting to be smart and wanting to be bright
And most answers don't have questions
Asking what is right, what is wrong
Us so absorbed in our own microcosms
with different rules, all singing the capitalist's song
Here we go, our moral boundaries
Sketched by our institutions fine
No earth shattering cause to stare with stormy eyes
No dilemmas of the soul, no epiphanies divine
Folks giving up life and love, for honor
Don't you also want to have such a cause
Of a fervent & bone-shaking genre?
Oh, to stand for something
To look in the eye and stare 'em down
Going down as one of a kind
In local history and gossip 'round town
But when life offers a consolation prize
In giving ocassion to do a thing small-but-right
You find yourself taking the street smart route
Wanting to be smart and wanting to be bright
And most answers don't have questions
Asking what is right, what is wrong
Us so absorbed in our own microcosms
with different rules, all singing the capitalist's song
Here we go, our moral boundaries
Sketched by our institutions fine
No earth shattering cause to stare with stormy eyes
No dilemmas of the soul, no epiphanies divine