“Here’s Your Future” is a song by American indie rock band The Thermal. It was first released on the album The Body, the Blood, the Machine in 2006.
According to the band’s official website, the album tells “a terrifying tale of a young couple fleeing a fascist faux-Christian USA.” “Here’s Your Future” is the first song on this album. It projects contemporary politics on Biblical narratives and conveys a shocking message about how the authorities’ actions affect the layperson. Specifically, it draws a parallel between God and politicians. The song criticized those who decide human’s fate and future are not responsible for their actions.
The song begins with an act of divine intervention.
God reached his hand down from the sky
He flooded the land then he set it on fire
He said, "Fear me again. Know I'm your father.
Remember that no one can breathe underwater"
The song makes a direct reference to the two destructive events caused by God: the Great Flood which happens in Genesis 6 and the fire in Sodom in Genesis 19. The next two lines further emphasize the role of God in shaping humans’ life. “God” refers to a broader meaning of fate: it can be political authorities who determine how we live now and in the future; it can also be an irresistible external force setting the limiting framework that we can live within. The repetition of “Here’s your future” again addresses the idea that one’s fate is a predetermined course of events by the supreme power. Revealing the realities of fate, the band throws a thoughtful question to the audiences: how much of our future is truly our own?
The band might provide a disappointing answer. The song continues with a description of a complete surrender to the supreme power of fate by singing “so bend your knees and bow your heads.” It is a sneering indictment posing a question of free will under the authorities: people cannot exist in our world without submitting to the environment.
Later in the song, the reconstructed narrative of the Noah’s Ark demonstrates a great contradiction to the primordial Biblical story. In the song, Noah is portrayed as a powerless coward who obeyed God’s instructions because he was afraid of God.
God asked Noah if he wanted to die
He said "No sir
Oh, no, sir"
...
God told his son, "It's time to come home
I promise you won't have to die all alone
I need you to pay for the sins I create"
His son said, "I will, but Dad, I'm afraid"
The intriguing conversation between God and Noah vividly depicts their relationship as a powerful commander and a compliant follower. The band mocks how Noah acted like an obedient, faint-hearted baby promising “dad” that he will follow his order. The song then ends with several repetitions of “So here's your future.” The repetition shows a universal occurrence of the supreme power forcing the powerless people to take their fate.
The God in this song is an indifferent one, who casually laid out his plans to decimate the population. With regard to the political environment when the song was created, the band aimed to criticize that President Bush’s initiation of war in Iraq and Afghanistan is similar to the destruction made by God. President Bush even claimed he was on “a mission from God when he launched the invasions.” The interesting parallel drawn by the band connects contemporary politics to the ancient Biblical stories. “Here’s Your Future” is a great example of today’s remembrance of the Bible in rock music.