Ancestors

(album: Generation Gaming XXI: Rage Quit The Machine - 2020)

What's a man but a naked ape?
Just trying to make it from day-to-day
'Cause what's a man but a naked ape?
But with fantasies of making a great escape
What's a man but a naked ape?
It's amazing, spectating it taking shape
What's a man but a naked ape?
But every generation makes the same mistake
(What's a man but a naked ape?)
(What's a man but a naked ape?)

Yeah, Darwinian, carving our lineage
Into the Stone Age with shards of hard DNA
In the beginning, we didn't need an Adam or Eve
Our ancestors inhabited trees
And handed down every habit that would have us succeed
At an increasingly gathering speed
Rapidly reproducing, how deep are the roots of your family tree?
How many branches on it? How many leaves?
And what's the plan when we leave for the savannas and plains?
As we abandon the rainforest, expand our terrain
Typical humans, look, they're at it again
Never happy with the same thing, they have to seek change
And that's the reason why they keep succeeding at everything
That life throws at them, treating every challenge as a game
If you fail to adapt, you will gradually endanger
The traits that made your race faster in the race
You want to die like that? Thought not, so fight back
Your genetic code isn't even written yet, so write that
Knowing you're otherwise gonna die is quite a catalyst
You're on a deoxyribonucleic acid trip
From Ardipithecus Ramidus to Australopithecus
To an Instagram influencer chucking another pic at us
Picture this, we're a pick and mix of different bits
That tilt and shift, tip and pitch, twisted up in a helix

What's a man but a naked ape?
Just trying to make it from day-to-day
'Cause what's a man but a naked ape?
But with fantasies of making a great escape
What's a man but a naked ape?
It's amazing, spectating it taking shape
What's a man but a naked ape?
But every generation makes the same mistake
(What's a man but a naked ape?)
(We're the same family, what can I say?)

What's a man but a naked ape
With a little variation in facial shape?
And what's an ape but another living thing
With some of the same DNA in another string?
And what's a string of DNA but a cypher
Containing designs, dictating our nature
Explaining in writing the laser
Precise undertaking we're staying alive for?
But if we find out why, will it make us any wiser?
Education, the great equalizer
Keep up with rivals
Peep what their eyeballs are seeing
When they read anything but the Bible
We've booked your mind on a voyage with the beagle
People better be ready for a big upheaval
Scholars bringing new knowledge
But the medieval elite theology will condemn and call it evil
Ha, don't believe all the evidence you've been brought
Feel free to leave then, it's better for the gene pool
Ever since we crawled, fresh from the fetal deep pool
We call the sea to the preschool
There have been people trying to make it illegal
To climb higher than the steeple of the cathedral
But it's deceitful and lethal, we need reason
To reach freedom and leave from the prequel
Reboot from the seed to the roots of the tree
'Til we're reaching the truth and we're eating the fruit
Like an ape in the canopy
What can I say? We're the same family
(Like an ape in the canopy)
(What can I say? We're the same family)

What's a man but a naked ape?
Just trying to make it from day-to-day
'Cause what's a man but a naked ape?
But with fantasies of making a great escape
What's a man but a naked ape?
It's amazing, spectating it taking shape
What's a man but a naked ape?
But every generation makes the same mistake