If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be The Next Lyrics
Manic Street Preachers
Lyrics
The future teaches you to be alone
The present to be afraid and cold
So if I can shoot rabbits
Then I can shoot fascists
Bullets for your brain today
But we'll forget it all again
Monuments put from pen to paper
Turns me into a gutless wonder
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next, will be next, will be next
Gravity keeps my head down
Or is it maybe shame
At being so young and being so vain
Holes in your head today
But I'm a pacifist
I've walked La Ramblas
But not with real intent
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next, will be next, will be next, will be next
And on the street tonight an old man plays
With newspaper cuttings of his glory days
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next, will be next, will be next
Song & Lyrics Facts
Manic Street Preachers' "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" was released on August 31, 1998 as the lead single from their fifth studio album This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. Written by band members James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore, it is a politically charged song with lyrics that reference the Spanish Civil War.
The song's title is taken from a Republican slogan used during the war: “If you tolerate this, then your children will be next”. It became the Manic Street Preachers' first number one single in the UK Singles Chart, staying at the top for four weeks.