in name it is a contest
to ascend to upper caste
but what we're truly striving for
is to offer up our last
your competitor sacrifices
their love and care and self
and having paid these prices
attains a chance at wealth
now you may undercut them
and offer moloch another slice
rationality succumbs
to his ever increasing price
and so and so and so it goes
diminished and demeaned
we trim off pieces of ourselves
and pay them to this fiend
in this scheme there's no success
without first effacing
the game is rigged against progress
to keep everybody chasing
so sell your soul for a chance to be
the one who crushes the crushed
and end up soulless and unfree
by your god you're gagged and trussed
why be good when no one else is?
why care when you ain't cared for?
what sense is there in dignity
when you're stuck in a price war?
so we race with each other
to see who is the least
who can offer the most
of themselves to the beast