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This is Me (Banksy's What You Lookin' At)

from 12 Painting Sketches by Sandpiper Parade

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This is possibly my favorite piece from the album. It's one of Banksy's simplest pieces, but perhaps one of the most profound, especially in a post-Snowdengate world.

The second half of the piece is a meditation of CCTV and how it replaces the role of God/conscience to make us do the right thing because we know someone is watching, and so, in a weird twisted way, the man sitting at the police station watching the CCTV cameras is God, except he's not, but perhaps he's uncomfortably similar to many perceptions we have about God. Also, graffiti and the police state dystopia.

lyrics

This is me
Looking at your camera
Looking at me
What do you see?
All-seeing eye
CCTV

Do you find my conversations interesting?
If I say "bomb" "revolution" "allahu akbar"
How long you gonna keep that tape?

God is watching us
He sits in a pale cubicle
Pasty on his lips
He watches the people pass by
On a couple hundred screens
Best be on your best behavior
Best not be vandalizing

Art is staring you in the face
The faceless man with a can of paint
The faceless man before the screen
The black batons of the trudging beat
The faceless in the heavenlies

credits

from 12 Painting Sketches, released August 6, 2016

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James Metelak Kyrgyzstan

Indie-folk Acoustic Singer-Songwriter Multilingual World Traveler Music That is Sometimes to God, and sometimes not.

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