Tom Waits - What Keeps Mankind Alive lyrics

(Weill/Brecht) You gentlemen who think you have a mission To purge us of the seven deadly sins Should first sort out the basic food position Then start your preaching, that's where it begins You lot who preach restraint and watch your waist as well Should learn, for once, the way the world is run However much you twist or whatever lies that you tell Food is the first thing, morals follow on So first make sure that those who are now starving Get proper helpings when we all start carving What keeps mankind alive? What keeps mankind alive? The fact that millions are daily tortured Stifled, punished, silenced and oppressed Mankind can keep alive thanks to its brilliance In keeping its humanity repressed And for once you must try not to shriek the facts Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts