States are like people. They do not question the awful status quo until some dramatic event overturns the conventional and lax way of thinking.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The idea of the state is, or should be, a very limited, prescribed idea. The state looks after the defense of the realm, and other matters - raising revenue to pay for things which are for all of us, and so on. That idea has turned turtle now. The state isn't any longer perceived as an institution which exists to serve us.
What has gone catastrophically wrong in England and the States is that for 30 years we've lost the ability to talk about the state in positive terms. We've raised a generation or two of young people who don't think to ask, 'What can the state do that is good?'
You can't have modern states based on ideas which have been out of date for a thousand years.
The U.S. increasingly has taken on the characteristics of what we describe as 'failed states.'
Why can't the state accede to the public's wishes?
'State' can be a word that is a noun or a verb or an adverb - it's kind of why I chose that title. It's not to confound the audience but to keep me from painting myself into a cul-de-sac in the early stages of making a record by having too high concept or having some really strict set of rules I have to adhere to.
The state of our state needs serious attention.
It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society.
The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life.
States seem to have a natural life cycle, and anything can occur to change them into something else, and that something might be no bad thing.