1
So, you've been to school
For a year or two
And you know you've seen it all
In daddy's car
Thinking you'll go far
Back east your type don't crawl
Playing ethnicky jazz
To parade your snazz
On your five-grand stereo
Braggin' that you know
How the niggers feel cold
And the slum's got so much soul
It's time to taste what you most fear
Right Guard will not help you here
Brace yourself, my dear
Brace yourself, my dear
It's a holiday in Cambodia
It's tough, kid, but it's life
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Don't forget to pack a wife
You're a star-belly snitch
You suck like a leech
You want everyone to act like you
Kiss ass while you bitch
So you can get rich
While your boss gets richer off you
Well, you'll work harder
With a gun in your back
For a bowl of rice a day
Slave for soldiers
Till you starve
Then your head is skewered on a stake
Now you can go where the people are one
Now you can go where they get things done
What you need, my son...
What you need, my son...
Is a holiday in Cambodia
Where people are dressed in black
A holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll kiss ass or crack
Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll do what you're told
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Where the slums got so much soul
Pol Pot
For a year or two
And you know you've seen it all
In daddy's car
Thinking you'll go far
Back east your type don't crawl
Playing ethnicky jazz
To parade your snazz
On your five-grand stereo
Braggin' that you know
How the niggers feel cold
And the slum's got so much soul
It's time to taste what you most fear
Right Guard will not help you here
Brace yourself, my dear
Brace yourself, my dear
It's a holiday in Cambodia
It's tough, kid, but it's life
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Don't forget to pack a wife
You're a star-belly snitch
You suck like a leech
You want everyone to act like you
Kiss ass while you bitch
So you can get rich
While your boss gets richer off you
Well, you'll work harder
With a gun in your back
For a bowl of rice a day
Slave for soldiers
Till you starve
Then your head is skewered on a stake
Now you can go where the people are one
Now you can go where they get things done
What you need, my son...
What you need, my son...
Is a holiday in Cambodia
Where people are dressed in black
A holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll kiss ass or crack
Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll do what you're told
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Where the slums got so much soul
Pol Pot
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You guys are interpreting this song incorrectly (at least partially).
The first half of the song is critical of "trust-fund radicals" who posture at being supportive or sympathetic to radical revolutionaries in places like Cambodia, because it's safe for them to do so from the warm cocoon of their upper-class, American liberal arts academic life. JB is saying that these college hipster types only know about revolutions through books and that they would piss themselves if they actually took a "Holiday in Cambodia" and had to give up their comfortable western lifestyle to see what revolution looks like in real life.
The SECOND half of the song is critical of rich yuppies who JB feels could use some humility training in a third world communist dictatorship like that in the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia.
My friend was forced to fight for the Khmer Rouge when he was a young boy (and after his grandparent's home was set on fire and the town ransacked). He didn't learn humility; rather, he leared how to fear and how to slaughter. Thankfully, one night he escaped alone (leaving behind his best friend for fear of snitching) and made his way into a neighboring country where U.S. "adoptions" were being arranged. The Khmer Rouge were brutal thugs...many very young. The word "humility" shouldn't be used in the same sentence as their group name. I agree w/ the remainder of your post. It's an interesting song...and a little too realistic.
I agree with carolinahaze above - but I think rolypolyw-w has tapped into the anticommunist strand of the text as well. The hypocrisy of the idealist college Lefties is exposed for the privileged posing that it is - and is then eclipsed by the brutal reality of the Pol Pot regime trying to coerce Marxist theory into practice. <br /> <br /> Eric Boucher, from bucolic Boulder CO, seems to believe in pure anarchist agitation. He is like the "useful idiots" used by Communist and Fascist thugs alike to rise to power on a wave of mayhem and civil unrest ("Burn it all down baby! Smash the state! Bedtime for Democracy! Etc. etc.)<br /> <br /> Jello wrote some great lyrics and his band rocked - but, like a cheap vintage wine, he does not age well.
@carolinahaze I think it's a critique of "radicals" in general. Radicalism, no matter who advocates it is inherently dangerous.<br /> <br /> This song warns of what can happen when you try to overthrow systems that work.<br /> <br /> It asks the listener sincerely whether they wish to live in Capitalist America with it's few faults or Communist Cambodia, the genocidal dictatorship.<br /> <br /> I think the message of this song can be summed up with this Churchill quote:<br /> <br /> "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others."