Rootless Cosmopolitans - Momus

Rootless cosmopolitans the hubris makes you hoot

You watch us travel round the world

And even follow suit

But times have changed, and mother

Standing at the garden gate

Calls us home for dinner

With the nation state

We dreamed we could live anywhere

And some actually did

Taking flats in Paris, Brussels and Madrid

Learning other languages, with other points of view

It became, back in the 90s, something anyone could do

We took it all for granted, that expansion of the cage

Global, multicultural, the catchwords of the age

But, scapegoated by populists, our freedoms go to hell

Because if we can do it, so can immigrants as well

We dreamed we could live anywhere

And started moving in

To beautiful apartments in Lisbon and Berlin

With other cosmopolitans with other points of view

Showing local people that was something you could do

Rootless cosmopolitans, it’s so great to be free

You listened to the travellers' tales

And started to agree

But hubris requires nemesis, the guardians of the gate

Call us in to dine again with the nation state

Rootless cosmopolitans, pretension makes you hoot

At elitists and precarians under your jackboot

But scapegoated by populists the whole thing flew to hell

Because if we can do it, so can immigrants as well