More Important Than You Think

It isn't merely that your fate depends on whether or not you get your act together and to what degree you decide that you're going to live out your own genuine being
It isn't only your fate
It's the fate of everyone that you're networked with
There's 7 billion people in the world and who are you?
You're just one little dustmote among that 7 billion and so it really doesn't matter what you do or don't do but that's simply not the case
It's thе wrong model
'Cause you're at thе center of a network
You're a node in a network
You're a node in a network
You're a node in a network
Node, node in a network

You'll know a thousand people
At least over the course of your life
And they'll know a thousand people
And that puts you one person away from a million
And two persons away from a billion
And so that's how you're connected and the things you do
They're like dropping a stone in a pond, the ripples move outward and they affect things in ways that you can't fully comprehend and it means that

[Chorus]
The things that you do and you don't do are far more important than you think
More important than you think
Far more important than you think
The things that you do and you don't do are far more important than you think

The terror of realizing that is that it actually starts to matter what you do and you might say
Well, that's better than living a meaningless existence, it's better for it to matter
But I mean if you really ask yourself, would you be so sure?

[Chorus]
The things that you do and you don't do are far more important than you think
More important than you think
Far more important than you think
The things that you do and you don't do are far more important than you think

You have the choice I can live with no responsibility whatsoever, the price I pay is that nothing matters
Or I can reverse it and everything matters
But I have to take the responsibility that's associated with that
It's not so obvious to me that people would take the meaningful path
Now, when you say; Well, nihilists suffer dreadfully because there's no meaning in their life and they still suffer
Yeah, but the advantage is they have no responsibility
So that's the pay off and I actually think that's the motivation
Say well, I can't help being nihilistic all my belief systems have collapsed
It's like, yeah, maybe
Maybe you've just allowed them to collapse because it's a hell of a lot easier than acting them out
And the price you pay is some meaningless suffering but you can always whine about that and people will feel sorry for you and you have the option of taking the pathway of the martyr
So that's a pretty good deal, all things considered especially when the alternative is to
Bear your burden properly and to live forthrightly in the world
If you live a pathological life, you pathologize your society
And if enough people do that, then
It's hell
Really
Really

[Chorus]
The things that you do and you don't do are far more important than you think
More important than you think
Far more important than you think
The things that you do and you don't do are far more important than you think

[Chorus]
The things that you do and you don't do are far more important than you think
More important than you think
Far more important than you think
The things that you do and you don't do are far more important than you think

And you can read The Gulag Archipelago and you'll see exactly what hell is like
And then you can decide if that's a place you'd like to visit or even more importantly, if it's a place you'd like to visit
And take all your family and friends
Because that's what happened in the 20th Century