Growing Pains

History is written by the winners

Passed down through faded memories and wistful sighs

All the fire and the fury, all the blood and gold and glory

And the story gets eroded with time

Call up a war just to declare yourself the hero

Ensure your children always hear your righteous cry

You’ll sign your name to the account, then steal the page to cross it out

Rewrite the narrative before the ink is dry

Prestige and notoriety

It all just sounds the same

You’ll join the ranks to write it off

And call it growing pains

Can you name a sin in which you aren’t complicit?

Testify against your litany of crimes?

Deceit and false flag victories, oh from sea to shining sea

All the ugly truth you hid is brought to light

Was it not greed that blazed in New York in the factories?

And gluttony that stole the pigeons from the sky?

Did wrath and envy raise you up a thief and liar?

Or was it just the crowning jewel of all your pride?

Another day, another dollar

The price of progress, you will say

You’ll step in line, just write it off

And call it growing pains

And then the men who wrote the damn rules

Will descend and call it fair

You'll declare yourself the victor

With your thumb upon the scale

It’s a time-honored tradition

You were born to carry on

It’s just the king against the artist

With his sword against a song

Prestige and notoriety

It all just sounds the same

You’ll join the ranks to write it off

And call it growing pains

Another day, another dollar

The price of progress, you will say

You’ll step in line, just write it off

And call it growing pains

You claim to manifest a destiny

When you pulled the strings of fate

The sycophants will write it off

And call it growing pains

You sycophants, you’ll write it off

And call it growing pains