Trapped

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Bruce Springsteen. And, one of my favorite Springsteen songs is “Trapped,” which, to many’s surprise, is not a Springsteen song at all. The song was first penned and sung by Jamaican reggae icon Jimmy Cliff in early 1970’s. Legend has it that Springsteen bought a Jimmy Cliff cassette tape in an Amsterdam airport, heard “Trapped,” and immediately decided to incorporate it into the remainder of the E Street Band’s 1981 tour. He transitioned the song from reggae to rock with a new arrangement and continued to rile up his crowds with his thunderous version throughout the 1980s; it remains a fan favorite to this day.

Springsteen’s version of “Trapped” is much darker than Cliff’s, and his adaptation of the song illustrates a level of cynicism that Cliff’s does not. For example, in the original, the song opens with a vibrant guitar and keyboard riff; enter Cliff and his opening line: “Well, it seems like I’ve fallen in your trap again/And it seems like I’ll be wearing the same old pains” [my emphasis]. Then, he and his heavenly background singers hit the bridge with “So you see that somewhere I have found the key [my emphasis]/Yes, you see that somewhere I have found the key” [my emphasis] before landing on the critical point of the song in this chorus: “…I’m trapped, ooh yeah, ooh yeah…”

In Springsteen’s version, however, the song takes on a much more sinister tone, opening not with a cadre of upbeat island sounds, but instead with a simple, repetitive guitar riff, an officious beat-keeping drum, and a haunting synthesizer. The Boss also changed the first line of Cliff’s song…just slightly: “Well, it seems like I’ve fallen in your trap again/And it seems like I’ll be wearing the same old chains” [my emphasis]. The move from pains to chains gives the song an overt sociopolitical tone that Cliff’s song hints at but doesn’t display outright. Another small but noticeable change is in the bridge. In Springsteen’s version, he sings: “Then I know someday I’ll find the key [my emphasis]/Then I know somewhere I’ll find the key” [my emphasis]. The use of future tense (“I’ll find the key”) — rather than the present perfect tense (“I have found the key”) — indicates that the narrator in Bruce’s version hasn’t yet found the route to escape, whereas Cliff’s narrator knows the way out.

While the two artists differ slightly in their lyrics and arrangements, they have one thing in common, which is the takeaway message of the song: We are trapped in a game that we let happen, yet we can’t make it stop (or, also likely, choose not to stop it). Like many Americans, every day I wake up feeling a profound sense of suffocation, helplessness, repetition, frustration, and impotence described in both versions of this song. I feel stuck, glued…legs caught in the flypaper that is my country. I feel…trapped.

Verse 1

“Well it seems like I’m caught up in your trap again/And it seems like I’ll be wearin’ the same ol’ chains/Good will conquer evil and the truth will set you free/Then I know someday I’ll find the key/Then I know somewhere I’ll find the key…”

Well, America, we’re caught up in the trap of the outnumbered and outvoted. Because the founders chose to protect the minority’s rights at the expense of the majority, our country is now under siege by a vocal but dangerous radicalized group of Republicans. In the last 20 years alone, we have had two un-popularly elected Republican presidents who repeatedly lied to the American public and did not govern on behalf of all Americans. These two presidents, who succeed only because of a racist and completely unnecessary Electoral College system, have contributed to our diminished status in the international community, packed our courts with young, unqualified judges hell-bent on overturning reproductive, human, and civil rights while giving more power to corporations and police, suppressed the vote, given tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and corporations, gone to war abroad (See: Iraq and Afghanistan) and at home (See: 1/6/21) because of outright lies, and — ultimately — have left the rest of us to fend for ourselves in the real-life Hunger Games.

Our electoral system allows states like Wyoming (population 573,909) to have as much power and representation as California (population 39,466,917). We have state legislatures gerrymandering their voting districts, allowing politicians to choose their voters instead of voters choosing their representation as it should be in the free, fair, and democratic country we claim to want to be.

It’s not fraud that makes people wary of our elections; it’s the aforementioned suppression tactics that stem from bullshit 18th and 19th century relics that make Americans think their vote doesn’t matter. And, guess what? In some states, that’s absolutely true. We’ve allowed our elections to basically become a race to win: Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Virginia, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona. The other reliably blue or red states really don’t matter when it comes to national races. That’s sad and completely unfair to the people living in the other 40 states (and don’t even get me started on the disenfranchisement of DC residents), who, likely, are a healthy combo of both blue and red and equally deserve to be courted by candidates.

So, how do we move forward? How do we right the ship?

Well, one thing that won’t help is cliches like “good will conquer evil.” Falsehoods like this aren’t getting us anywhere but deeper into our own delusions. Clearly “thoughts and prayers” haven’t ended gun violence, and the unwavering belief in “American exceptionalism” won’t save us as we’re being stripped of that which makes us truly American: the right to vote and equal justice for all under the law.

Verse 2

“Well it seem like I’ve been playin’ the game way too long/And it seems the game I played has made you strong/Well when the game is over, I won’t walk out a loser/And I know that I’ll walk out of here again/And I know that someday I’ll walk out of here again…”

Well, America, not only are we trapped in this “game,” but we are the reason we’re trapped. We have allowed colonial ideology and philosophy to drive our modern-day governing practice. However, the problem is that when we don’t know or examine our own history — colonial history especially — we have no idea what the values are that we’re holding on to and, more importantly, why we’re holding onto them.

For example, when we don’t study why we established the Electoral College in the first place — spoiler: to protect slaveowners’ access to representation (isn’t it ironic?) — we won’t understand why it doesn’t work fairly for a country that now has 330 million people representing different races, religions, ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses, genders, and geographies. The states with the largest, most diverse populations are being ruled by those with the smallest, most homogenous populations. This is not how fairness and proportionality work. Similarly, when we don’t know the history of voter suppression efforts in America — i.e. poll taxes, literacy tests, lynching/voter intimidation — then we don’t understand why we ALL should be outraged by the Supreme Court’s decision to gut almost entirely the Voting Rights Act. And, we ALL should be scared shitless about the impending effects thereof.

In short, when we don’t know our own history, we don’t know ourselves. When we don’t know ourselves, we can’t make sound decisions on our own behalf.

Progressives (including/especially me) tend to think we have all the answers to solve all of the problems. We are rightly appalled and incensed by the insanity we are seeing around us. Folks are opting NOT to take a life-saving vaccine based on misinformation from the highly qualified keyboard doctors of Facebook. A majority of Republicans believe the 2020 election was fraudulent (it wasn’t). Not only do we have to deal with this lunacy, but we have to stew in our knowledge that while we’re on the right side of every major issue from voting rights to healthcare to criminal justice reform, we literally can’t do a thing about it because, for some “moderate” lawmakers, process is more important than actually helping Americans and preserving our sacred right to vote. At the very least, we Progressive Americans can walk out of here holding our heads high and be righteous in our rightness.

So, why does it feel like we’re always losing and that we are, indeed, losers?

Chorus

“Because I’m trapped…ooh yeaaaah/Trapped…ooh yeaaaah/Trapped…ooh yeaaaah/Trapped…ooh yeaaaah”

Face it, America, we’re trapped. We’re trapped in a country overtaken by suicidal, misinformed, conspiracy-spreading, anti-democratic, anti-intellectual, anti-accountability, anti-inclusive, anti-empathy, “fuck your feelings” gunmen (gunpersons…gunfolk?). We can’t win because we’re being snuffed out at every turn — even by those who should, in theory, be with us (looking at you J. Manchin (D-WV) and K. Sinema (D-Arizona).

Verse 3

“Now it seems like I’ve been sleepin’ in your bed too long/And it seems like you’ve been meanin’ to do me harm/But I’ll teach my eyes to see beyond these walls in front of me/And someday I’ll walk out of here again/Yeah I know someday I’ll walk out of here again…”

America, I know you know — at least intellectually — that the policies and practices of capitalism are unsustainable and are harmful to a significant portion of our population. I mean, really, we just watched a billionaire go to space while many are worried about paying their rent next month or having enough food to eat this week. We know millions of Americans don’t have healthcare and/or have been bankrupted by medical bills. We know millions of Americans are making less than $10/hour and struggling to meet their own basic needs, like housing, food, childcare, clothing, and transportation. We know millions of Americans are rotting away in prisons for non-violent crimes simply because they cannot afford quality representation and/or cash bail.

It takes time to get out of abusive relationships.

Change is hard, and it can seem safer to stay with the devil you know rather than change horses midstream (cliche mashup!). But, in the words of the great Whoopie Goldberg: America, ”…you in danger, girl.” We are endangered by our own game that we have created. And, it will never change unless we stop playing it and actually fix it. Let’s be real: The game sucks. The game favors the well-connected, the wealthy, the sycophants, the “moderates,” the under-qualified (or completely unqualified — see also: Trump, Donald), the rowdy, the aggrieved, the headline- and soundbite- makers, and the rage-Tweeters. The game punishes the diligent, the sacrificers, the trustworthy, the steadfast, the un-bought and un-bossed, and the changemakers.

The good news is that we don’t have to give up, and we don’t have to give in. America can Tina Turner this shit right around and turn a tragedy into a success story (an American tale as old as time). But, to do so will take a lot of reflection and reckoning. And, sadly, we’re just not there. I’m not sure when — if ever — we will be.

So, until then…we’re trapped.