My land's only borders lie around my heart!
Anthem
From the musical Chess
No man, no madness —
Though their sad power may prevail —
Can possess, conquer, my country’s heart;
They rise to fail!
She is eternal;
Long before nations’ lines were drawn,
When no flags flew, when no armies stood,
My land was born!
And you ask me why I love her,
Through wars, death, and despair.
She is the constant,
We who don’t care.
And you ask me would I leave her — But how?
I cross over borders, but I’m still there now!
How can I leave her?
Where would I start?
Let man’s petty nations tear themselves apart!
My land’s only borders lie around my heart!
Such beautiful patriotic lyrics from Tim Rice's musical Chess, which tells the tale of a world chess championship between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Yet in my humble, Anarchist opinion, at least a couple of this song's lines are somehow compatible with Anarchism's views of the world! Consider the following:
- “…Long before nations’ lines were drawn, When no flags flew, when no armies stood…”
In all fairness, the song is apolitical — dare I say rather anti-political. Consider Anatoly's “country’s heart”, which he declares is something that “No man, no madness … Can possess, conquer”. That's not to say that “their sad power” can't prevail elsewhere, though; as far as Anatoly's concerned, “Let man’s petty nations tear themselves apart!”
Nonetheless, the final, heart-rendering line reads:
- “My land’s only borders lie around my heart!”
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This blog post above is inspired by Jai McDowall's performance of this song on ITV's show Britain's Got Talent!
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