Rush's "The Trees"

I've been listening to Rush (the band, not the talk show host) lately. I'd forgotten how much I liked those guys. I liked watching them play with their beautiful mullets on MTV when I was a pimply faced 'tween in junior high. I never really paid attention to their lyrics back then. Listening now I realize their big libertarians. In this season of Obamamania it is good to be reminded of what happens in a forest when equal rights become equal outcomes? “The trees are all kept equal / By hatchet, axe, and saw.”



THE TREES

There is unrest in the forest,
There is trouble with the trees,
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas.

The trouble with the maples,
(And they're quite convinced they're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light.
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made.
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade.

There is trouble in the forest,
And the creatures all have fled,
As the maples scream "Oppression!"
And the oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights.
"The oaks are just too greedy;
We will make them give us light."
Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.