Principle Shit (Anthem for the Tired Generation)

**Genre**

"Principle Shit (Anthem for the Tired Generation)" is a song written by Mikaela Thorn and recorded under her alias ThornBrain. It was released on her third album, *Buried Secrets & Old Lies*. It was remastered along with the rest of *Buried Secrets...* in 2020, though it was one of the few songs that Thorn felt no need to remix.

## About

The song is am angry Punk Rock track written as catharsis for the treatment and dismissal of millennials and gen-Z'ers by baby boomers. It was inspired by Thorn reading memorials for the then-recently-deceased Mark E. Smith of The Fall, a man known for abusing and assaulting his bandmates, wherein Smith was quoted as once saying that "kids these days have no principles". Incensed by this statement from a known abuser, which she had heard from questionable people before, Thorn directly accuses boomers' "principles" as being homousian with child and domestic abuse, violence towards people of color and LGBTQ+ people, and the extremism that causes the then-recent trend of school shootings. "The Tired Generation" refers collectively to millennials and gen-z'ers, whom Thorn noticed as being widely physically and emotionally exhausted during the Trump administration.

The main riff is adapted from "My Little Underground" by The Jesus and Mary Chain, which Thorn covered for the free *Quaero* compilation. The lead guitar is inspired by Captain Sensible's guitar work on "Wait for the Blackout" by The Damned from *The Black Album*, which Thorn considered covering but couldn't figure out the structure in the short time she had to add to the compilation, so she instead opted to cover another track from the same album, "Lively Arts".

## Lyrics

Shut your fucking mouth

We've all had it with your

Hypocritic, paralytic,

Mythical principle shit

We just don't understand them

How could they break away

What's with these mindless actions

What's with these kids today

What's with us is we don't buy into the bullshit

Roles, sins, morals that you made us eat

We'd be so much more holy, hateful, cruel

If we only had the wives and the kids you beat

We're not the ones with the blood on our hands

We're the body count rising from the ones who say

We need to be taught principles hard

Well we always thought school would kill us anyway

Shut your fucking mouth

We've all had it with your

Hypocritic, paralytic,

Mythical principle shit

What we are's the tired generation

Tired of everything, tired everyday

Exhaustion has brought us all under

Exhaustion is how we convey

Tired of losing all that you ever had

Tired of you forgetting all that we'll ever know

Tired of losing everybody we love and

Tired of you letting all the worst of you go

I want to be drifted back

To someone else's teenage years

When the world finally went silent

When your braying burst my ears

How many more computer-sized closets

How many more innocents to blame

How many more to pile on the sidewalk

We're the tired generation, we're tired of your shame

So pretend to read your holy books

Make sure the real Jesus sobs

As you blame and gun down another brown man

For the rich white motherfucker losing your jobs

How could they break away

What's with these kids today

What's with us is we don't buy into the bullshit

We have our own principles, and they say

Shut your fucking mouth

We've all had it with your

Hypocritic, paralytic,

Mythical principle shit