Post #1: "Belief" by John Mayer (2007)

      If you listen intently to the lyrics, this is a war protest song.  As a side note, it is most logically concluded that the song is a protest to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush administration, not only because it was written and produced during that time period, but also because of the line, "What puts a hundred thousand children in the sand/Belief can."  This is a direct allusion to the sands of the Middle East, where these two heavily protested wars were and still are being fought. 
    
     The more deeply embedded message, however, seems to be a general protest of the concept of war in general, stating that it is unfair and inhumane for human beings to die for other humans' belief "in how they think it ought to be."  Woven between the lines of the lyrics, I see one of the messages to be that belief in something is is not worth having if it means that human lives must be sacrificed for that belief.  Although I cannot pretend that war and death do not greatly disturb me, and I truly wish that there were an alternative to fighting, neither can I pretend that this song's message does not disturb me to some degree. 

     If humans did not believe in anything, if we allowed our fear of the unknown to control our innate desire to learn and explore new concepts and to choose certain ideals to hold and defend, what would separate us from mere animals?  If you think about it, all major advances in the world past and present happened because someone believed in something--whether a new idea, or an old moral--and held to that belief even in the face of death or ostracism and ridicule. 

     Advances in healthcare happened because someone believed that there was an microscopic agent causing disease, and this agent could be fought against using physical measures; America was founded because people believed that human rights are God-given and not King-given; within America, those rights were eventually given to all people because someone believed that all humans, no matter their skin color or origin, are equal.  Although belief will invariably ruffle feathers, and sometimes disturb the peace enough to cause death and destruction, I do not believe (no pun intended) that belief in itself is an evil thing because it has lead to more good than mere apathy would have ever created.