Food for Thought (Fitter, Happier)

Instead of bringing you food for thought from my mind today, I'm going to give you some food that has made me think. Radiohead's OK Computer has been finding it's way into my MP3 player quite often lately. This is one of my absolute favorite albums. The song writing was immaculate, and this album (being recorded in 1997) was very innovative and way ahead of it's time. I personally think it is still ahead of our time now in many ways.

OK Computer is a big contradiction in the way that the music sounds very happy and uplifting, it's only when you really read and study the lyrics that you pick up some very dark meanings. Radiohead has long claimed that this album was not written as a concept album, but themes of consumerism, commercialism, and technologies negative impact on society appear all over the album. There message here is very similar in many ways to the message I bring in much of my work, hence why I feel it's worth posting here. Here is the lyrics for "Fitter, Happier", on the album it is spoken in a robots voice. This combined with the words being almost a smug social status checklist make me believe they were trying to get across the point that society has turned us all into petty robots. As with my work, read it through a couple times and find what it means to you!

"Fitter, Happier" by Radiohead

Fitter, happier, more productive,
Comfortable,
Not drinking too much,
Regular exercise at the gym,
3 days a week,
Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries,
At ease,
Eating well,
No more microwave dinners and saturated fats,
A patient better driver,
A safer car,
Baby smiling in back seat,
Sleeping well,
No bad dreams,
No paranoia,
Careful to all animals,
Never washing spiders down the plughole,
Keep in contact with old friends
Enjoy a drink now and then,
Will frequently check credit at (moral) bank,
Hole in the wall,
Favors for favors,
Fond but not in love,
Charity standing orders,
On Sundays, ring road supermarket
No killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants,
Car wash,
Also on Sundays,
No longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows,
Nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate,
Nothing so childish,
At a better pace,
Slower and more calculated,
No chance of escape,
Now self-employed,
Concerned but powerless,
An empowered and informed member of society,
Pragmatism not idealism,
Will not cry in public,
Less chance of illness,
Tires that grip in the wet,
Shot of baby strapped in back seat,
A good memory,
Still cries at a good film,
Still kisses with saliva,
No longer feeling empty and frantic,
Like a cat tied to a stick,
That's driven into frozen winter shit,
The ability to laugh at weakness,
Calm,
Fitter,
Healthier and more productive,
A pig in a cage on antibiotics.