I don't have to tell you things are bad
Everybody knows things are bad
It's a depression
Everybody's out of work
or scared of losing their job
A dollar buys a nickel's worth
Banks are going bust
Shop keepers keep a gun under the counter
Punks are running wild in the street
and there's nobody anywhere
who seems to know what to do with it
There's no end to it

We know the air is unfit to breathe
and our food is unfit to eat

We sit watching our Tvs
while some local newscaster tell us that
today we had 15 homicides
and 63 violent crimes
as if that's the way it's supposed to be
We know things are bad,
worse than bad
They're crazy
It's like everything
everywhere is going crazy,
so we don't go out anymore
We sit in a house
and slowly the world we're living in
is getting smaller
and all we say is
"Please and please
leave us alone in our living room.
Let me have my toaster,
my Tv, my steel belted radials,
and I won't say anything
Just leave us alone"

But I'm not going to leave you alone
I want you to get mad

I don't want you to protest,
I don't want you to riot,
I don't want you to
write to your congressmen
because I wouldn't know
what to tell you to write
I don't know what to do
about the depression,
and inflation,
and the Russians,
and the crime in the street
All I know is that first
you've got to get mad
You've got to say
"I'm a human being God dammit.
My life has value"
I want you to get up now
I want all of you to get out of your chairs
I want you to get up right now,
and go to the window,
open it,
and stick your head out
and yell:
"I'm as mad as hell,
and I'm not going to take this anymore!"