The American Spectator

blockquote> em>We just feel like we don’t have the means to rise above and beat it; br> So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change /em> /blockquote> . br> Mayer frets we — I’m using the royal “we” here to signify The Man, his minions and all those in his service — believe he stands for nothing. Why this matters in light of the fact that Mayer makes quite clear, whatever he stands for, he plans to do absolutely nothing about it, but he does offer as a feeble excuse that It’s hard to beat the system when we’re standing at a distance and It’s not that we don’t care, we just know that the fight ain’t fair; so we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change . Brave words in difficult times, and, oh, when does the new season of According to Jim start anyway?

Ironically enough, this much-heralded defense of the unmotivated — one cannot scan FM radio without landing on it at least four times an hour — cannot match the passion Mayer brings to sassing an unnamed lover whom he bluntly prophesies will be a “bitch because you can” in order to “leave me feeling dirty.” What was that bit from Mayer’s last record? “Fathers be good to your daughters/Daughters will love like you do/Girls become lovers who turn into mothers/So mothers be good to your daughters, too.” Right, right…unless, of course, they’re bitches! Mayer’s problem with women and corporate media, however, is nothing compared to his ire for Sir Isaac Newton, as evidenced by his repeated warnings in another song’s chorus, “Gravity, Stay the hell away from me!”

When Mayer gets back to politics, it’s to warn, We’re never going to win the world; We’re never going to stop this war; We’re never going to beat this; If belief is what we’re fighting for.

Let’s tally up then, shall we? No action, no beliefs — save for his conviction in the depravity of certain bitches and the undying badness of gravitational pull — and a handwritten note in the Continuum’s liner notes in which Mayer confides, “I can’t complain but I know I should.” You know, he’s globally concerned.

Still, Mayer somehow finds it in himself to conclude “Waiting on the World to Change” with the pronouncement, One day our generation is gonna rule the population; so we keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change

Forgive us our doubts, John. Come back in two weeks, give us a progress report on your war with gravity and uppity women, and then we’ll discuss the rest of your agenda. Er, I mean, the Continuum.