A character song from my upcoming dystopian novel: THE POSITIVITY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Check out the album for more character songs.

____

Freedom, liberty, happiness
Mindlessly yapping words
Like talking to fleas, brain size of peas
I feel dumb entertaining your pleas

I can point out fallacies
And your lack of moralities
But your bad faith begs, a Hitch slap
So let me serve you, a bitch slap

[Chorus]
Shut up, damn neoliberal
You just want us to sell ourselves
Marketing our lives into profit lines
Corporate whoring by design

I'll argue with folks I disagree with
If our base purpose we can work with
If we want everyone to flourish free
Then we can fight on strategy

But for all your talk of freedom, liberty
The only one you care about is "me, me, me, me!"
Man, you're so full of bullshit
Even Atlas shrugs and says “fuck it!”

[Chorus]

If you think the world should serve you, own it
Don't pretend it's for the common benefit
If you judge by who's useful to you, own it
Don't pretend that you give a shit

[Chorus]

Shut Up Neoliberal

A character song from my upcoming dystopian novel: THE POSITIVITY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Check out the album for more character songs.

____

So here we are again, my friend
Another case you need to mend
Let me stretch first, get my ass unbent
Hell, this could have been an email sent

I'm Marcus, but just call me Mark
My mind cuts sharp like razor's arc
In world so atomized to quark
I’m here to give enlightenment a spark

[Chorus]
Ah! This time it's psychology
Mixed with some pop phrenology
Dressed-up phenomenology
Bad logic masked as philosophy

Yes, I am a psychologist
But no, I ain't no therapist
Call me a psychoanalyst
So sit down there, my masochist

If you want perfect mental health
You need a bit of brain cell death
Be blind, pretend this world ain't cruel
Self-care! Worry 'bout your own fuel

[Chorus]

You need to know if someone's Freud
Or else you'll swallow wisdom from some fraud
They'll blame you for your shit situation
Claiming mind's the source of all creation

[Chorus]

Pop Phrenology

A character song from my upcoming dystopian novel: THE POSITIVITY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Check out the album for more character songs.

____

Hey you, take a cue, yes you
Would you like to play some games?
No! I'm not suspicious at all
I'm Mark, and I sell games at the mall

Pixel farms and candy stacks
Firearms and planned attacks
Come let's play a stressful game
Makes you think with careful aim

[Chorus]
Don't sell bird-throwing at green pigs
Don't sell brick-matching color tricks
My games gonna get your brain switches flicking
Work frames to get your mind wheels turning

Dear my prospective customer
I hear you're feeling quite down under
Yeah, life's genre is not casual
It’s more tactical and mostly brutal

What you need is to play on a map
Not some tower defense mobile app
But as countries filling the trade gap
Choosing whether to side with the top hat or the flat cap

[Chorus]

Life is stressful, so you run to games
Escaping reality, seeking fun to gain
But dear patron, life's genre ain't casual
Escaping reality forever ain't rational

[Chorus]

Bird-Throwing At Green Pigs

A character song from my upcoming dystopian novel: THE POSITIVITY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Check out the album for more character songs.

____

Love's just a fine art, specimen
Bought with a beating heart's regimen
Scared you're gonna die alone
Sleeping in grave without ever getting boned

Going thirty, never married
While to happiness others get ferried
So pal, tell me, are you a loser?
Or have you got principles worth being a loner?

[Chorus]
Getting hitched early in your twenties
Tent pitched early, drop your panties
Do you get together 'cause you're meant to be?
Or are they just a tool of your utility?

To college, tick box. Good grades, tick box
Cruising through life, just checking your inbox
Own business, blank box. Get married, blank box
Just let the business apps HR your life!

Mutual benefit contracts
Insurance with profit, death tax
Check if your partner adds your net worth
But don't breed kids only for self-worth

[Chorus]

Y'all gonna wrinkle as your health trickles
So don't treat others like they're just fickle
If you use others just to fix life's pickle
Don't get mad when you're just theirs to twiddle

[Chorus]

Tent Pitched Early

Character Song Album from upcoming Dystopian Novel:
THE POSITIVITY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Coming 2026

Check out the Album for character songs.
___

THE POSITIVITY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Phil works as a low-wage data-entry clerk at Merope Lithium Trading, dutifully following government-mandated wellness guidelines that keep him bright and positive despite his economic struggles. But when he witnesses a colleague's suicide, his unshakeable belief that life is always worth living begins to crumble.

He met Sophie, a game streamer who openly expresses the socially forbidden emotion of Negativity. Through her influence, Phil's journey shifts from inner contemplation to external confrontation with a society that has weaponized psychology to pacify its population.

To awaken the world, Phil must rediscover his ability to express negativity, but this tragically puts him at odds with his crush and therapist Dr. Hilary, and Mr. Charon, CEO of the Macaria Wellness Foundation.

PROLOGUE - The Positivity Industrial Complex

ACT 1 -2 INTERLUDE

ACT 2-3 INTERLUDE

A character song from my upcoming dystopian novel: THE POSITIVITY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Check out the album for more character songs.

____

Dear students, study’s now in session
So much to learn, avoid brain regression
'Cause today we're learning 'bout synonyms
They're important! Don't you dare skip or skim

But first, let's roll the timeline way back
When your body was a much smaller sack
Slinging around your little backpack
Fixing your pants stuck in your crack

[Chorus]
What you call that room where you sit in school?
Listening to teacher quietly, that’s the rule
And that's the room you gotta be conscious about
Or at least, whatever shares its name throughout

Think of school, how you were divided
Into groups and cliques where you're not invited
The cool kids sitting high above the others
While you're down below, groaning as you suffer

But what is life, if not school extended?
Like those old days, still worried 'bout your credit
Not everyone can join the cool kids' club
'Cause who else gonna bring their grub?

[Chorus]

But you know you've got the power
To starve the cool kids, make them cower
After all, you're holding their lunch
And without you, they can't do much

[Chorus]

That Room Where You Sit In School

A character song from my upcoming dystopian novel: THE POSITIVITY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Check out the album for more character songs.

____

I’ve spied them with my naughty eyes
Business oink-oink justifying vice
Pimps dictating work-life balance sheets
Schedule our fucking while they take their seats

Freedom! Liberty! Happiness!
Pretty slogans hiding moral crappiness
Like doctors who teach mama how to push you
Let me drop some labor theory on you

[Chorus]
Toss that dollar on the muddy ground
"Abracadabra!" swing your magic wand
What's that? Can't build a goddamn thing from air?
Pal, I wonder who makes your shit and where

Your utility's marginal, your theory's a joke
Fingered that one straight out where the sun don't poke
If satisfaction falls with each additional hit
How come you still love getting fucked by dumb shit?

If value is whatever we believe
Why not call it "Trust Me Bro" school of economics
Man, how do you teach these idealists
Who think parking cash makes them protagonists?

[Chorus]

Go shrug till your shoulders are sore
Retreat to your evil castle floor
Give it a few fucking hours
You'll be asking: "Who grows the food in our towers?"

[Chorus]

Teach Mama How to Push You

A character song from my upcoming dystopian novel: THE POSITIVITY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Check out the album for more character songs.

____

Yeah, I'm just a man with two hands,
Can't change what everyone understands
I know folks rather stay positive
Than hear truth that makes 'em sensitive

Yeah, it’s depressing, I know
This unfiltered reality show
There's more comfort beneath the ceiling
Than pain that comes from truly feeling

[Chorus]
Tell me friends, what is to be done?
When the weight of change weighs like a ton?
I'm finding my way to the tribune
'Cause a new world can't come too soon

Riding train to the end of the line
Where from our frowns, our hope can still shine
Even if our intellect's pessimistic
Our will to act will stay optimistic

The old world is reaching final station
New one will birth from old generation
But in interregnum we wander
Beware, this is time of monsters

[Chorus]

Can't bear this burden alone
But I won’t shrug like ones on the throne
So rest with me, lie by my side
Hold my hand and half the sky with pride

[Chorus]

What Is To Be Done

Writes working-class speculative fiction. Browse along for character songs!

What Is To Be Done

AP