patrick.net

Why "One Tin Soldier" makes no sense, esp once you're no longer a dumb hippy from the 60s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO0QLHVYWiQ

====
Lyrics:
Listen, children, to a story
That was written long ago
'Bout a kingdom on a mountain
And the valley-folk below

On the mountain was a treasure
Buried deep beneath the stone
And the valley-people swore
They'd have it for their very own

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away

So the people of the valley
Sent a message up the hill
Asking for the buried treasure
Tons of gold for which they'd kill

It came an answer from the mountain
With our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain
All the riches buried there

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away

Now the valley cried with anger
"Mount your horses! Draw your sword!"
And they killed the mountain-people
So they won their just reward

Now they stood beside the treasure
On the mountain, dark and red
Turned the stone and looked beneath it
"Peace on Earth" was all it said

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away
====

For the longest time, I've wondered why this song was suppose to make sense?

Ok, so you have these so-called 'Mountain Folks' with a buried treasure, who're allegedly hoarding it from the 'Valley Folks'. Were these 'Mountain Folks' some aristocrats (or dwarves of the "Lord of the Rings") who'd hoarded a gold mine from the commoners for all of these decades just to create a type of hegemonic power base? I doubt it because they were willing to share it with everyone.

Hmm ... this is strange and goes against all class/social warfare manifestations where the landlords have everything while the serfs toil the land.

Next, do these 'Valley Folks' need some mysterious hidden treasure? No, at most, they're probably a bunch of sociopathic serial killers because they want to steal it for the sake of vanity/pride without sharing any of the scrapes. Realize, a shared commodity is not a hidden treasure, physical gold is $1500+/oz because it's rare, hard to mine, & not pieces of fiat money.

So what's the message of the song? If your Valley region neighbors are psycho, perhaps you need to invest in 'Greek Fire' a.k.a Napalm and kill off enough of the Valley region before they try to commit genocide on your Swiss village mountain top.