I had a childhood friend
Sworn together til the end
Playing tag and wrestling
Talking about the birds and bees
He asks if I believe in God
And then I tell him what’s my story
He says I’m gonna burn in hell
Because that’s what his parents told him
Hatred is taught
truth just can’t be bought
All of our lives
We think that we’re so wise
But It cuts you down size
When it’s staring in your eyes
We’re born with open hearts
And a blank slate on our souls
Religion politics and fear
Poison the waters and put up the walls
Safely behind our screens
Spewing trolling scapegoating
No one can touch us now
Lets start a fire and burn this whole place to the ground
Hatred is taught
Truth just can’t be bought
All of the lies
We tell to feel so wise
But It cuts you down size
When it’s staring in your eyes
about
We are all born innocent, free of prejudice and hatred, but our elders make us carry a heavy burden of hatred our whole life. Hatred is taught, we are not born with it. This is what Cognitive Dissonance is about. The first verse is based on a personal situation and deals with religious intolerance. The second is deals with political and ideological intolerance.
My family is Jewish. Across the street lives a Palestinian family. We’ve always gotten along and our sons are around the same age and used to play together every once in a while. They send their kids to a private Muslim school, and ours go to the local public school.
In all the times our son Max played with the neighbor’s son, the subject of religion never came up. One day, the neighbor’s son asked Max about his religion and he told him that he’s Jewish. The neighbor’s kid responded that all Jews are evil and going to hell. Max was kind of shocked, as were we when we heard about this exchange. A few weeks went by, then they both forgot about everything and continued playing with each other. It got me thinking that this is what the neighbor’s kid was hearing from his teachers, or maybe from his parents. All he wanted to do was play games with Max and not be burdened by thousands of years of animosity. A friend of mine who I told this story to said that the more he plays with Max, it can create a “cognitive dissonance” in his mind about what he’s told about Jews being evil versus someone he knows personally and is friends with.
The second verse talks about rising extremism that has been growing in the past two decades. People are prisoners of fake news, social media echo chamber bubbles and politicians who reinforce conspiracy theories and retweet them to their followers. The line “No one can touch us now” refers to the fact that without the threat of physical retaliation, people can hide behind their screens and spew the deep-rooted hatred that’s really on their minds. The last line of the first verse, “Let’s start a fire and burn this whole place to the ground” refers to all of these people finally deciding to take action and burn the system down. Even though I wrote the song a year ago, I think it eerily speaks to recent events.
“Truth just can’t be bought.” Objective news and facts don’t sell.
“All of our lives we think that we’re so wise but it cuts you down to size when it’s staring in your eyes.” It’s easy to write about our high ideals and our wishes for world peace, but when you have a gun pointed to your head or your business is burning down, it’s a rude awakening about how nasty the world is. The big collective guitar/electric violin solo at the end represents two sides screaming at each other, full of pain and hate, fading out screaming, never reaching an understanding or resolving anything.
I’ve been friends with Randy McStine for ten years now. He has toured with Stratospheerius numerous times, subbing on guitar, bass, and drums. Randy is one of the most talented people we know and his star is rising. He has made cameos on previous tracks we’ve done, including “Soul Food” and “Impostor.” We love his voice, and thought it would be cool to have him, guest, on lead vocals for the second verse of ”Cognitive Dissonance.”
credits
released January 31, 2021
Music and lyrics by Joe Deninzon
Joe Deninzon-lead vocals/electric violin
Michelangelo Quirinale-guitar
Paul Ranieri-bass
Jason Gianni-drums
Special guest: Randy McStine-vocals
Engineered by Rave Tesar
Mixed and Mastered by Rich Mouser
The Long Island metal band's third album etches arena-sized hooks into their jagged compositions, deftly balancing experimental and poppy inclinations. Bandcamp Album of the Day May 12, 2022
Roaring space rock from this London group, with every instrument turned up to 10, and all of the songs reaching stunning crescendos. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 9, 2019
Sustained by seismic psych riffs, proggy shifts, and vivid sci-fi storytelling, these Milwaukee cosmonauts command respect. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 29, 2023