Tena Moyer

Post-2008 Kerrville Folk Festival

FAF: Your song “Company Man” from your 2005 CD Shining Through appears to be a judgment-day-for-traitors song. Judas, Brutus, the citizens of Nazi Germany, all take their turns pleading their cases for various reasons, including loyalty, the good of mankind, a pawn not a policy maker, paralyzed by fear, and more. How does the chorus line, “I’m just a company man,” relate to these examples of traitors and traitorous deeds? How is this song relevant to current events? What individuals and/or peoples across the globe today are being sacrificed, and who are the purposeful and the unwitting perpetrators?

TENA: Interesting and unexpected question. Actually got the idea for the song while stuck on the San Diego Freeway when Dylan’s “With God On Our Side” came on the radio. There’s a line in it, “I cannot think for you: you’ll have to decide whether Judas Escariot had God on his side.” It just got me to thinking about how right and wrong isn’t black and white.

But what really motivated the song is our cultural propensity to blame others for our circumstances and not step up to the plate on our own actions or inaction. We claim we act as we do because someone made us or provoked us – our boss, our lover, our friend, our politicians, illegal aliens – and we fail to take personal responsibility for both the fact of our actions and the consequences and ramifications of them, both for ourselves and others.

The “Company Man” metaphor is just a reference to people using the mob mentality or political loyalties or corporate interests or religious dogma to justify and rationalize behaviors and choices that are otherwise self-serving, self-righteous, unethical or illegal.

I don’t believe in destiny and fate. I believe that life – destiny – offers us choices and the choices we make determine our fate. At any time we have the right to choose differently, so when someone offers the protestation of ‘the devil made me do it’ in whatever incarnation that claim presents itself, I find it cowardly and irresponsible.

Many people in Germany resisted the Nazis. Many people expose the frauds and deceptions of their institutions. Many people act in ways that require personal sacrifice and loss in order to live with integrity. We all have the capacity to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good if we are willing to make that choice.

The irony of the song is that Judas is truly self-sacrificing for a greater cause and for the sake of someone he loved dearly. Of all the characters referred to in the song, he alone did the right and courageous thing.

I actually think the most important line in the whole song is, “If you were me you would have too,” because it basically asks us to examine how much integrity and courage we each, as an individual, have. It is easy to judge someone else’s behavior or choice from the sidelines or in retrospect. But the truth is we do not know how we would act in similar circumstances, and I think it is important for us each to consider what we really might do in those imaginary circumstances. Would we hide Jews? Would we expose corporate fraud? We’re all human and we’re not in a position to truly judge someone else. We can only use their example to honestly and courageously explore our own moral base and integrity.

How is this song related to current events? Look at all the Bush people who have come out and exposed the lies and cynical manipulations of this administration, only to be publicly pilloried by the right wing press and the White House, itself. And, more importantly, why did they wait so long to expose something they knew was unethical or deceitful, if not illegal?

This is the question we have to ask ourselves – How would I behave? – and then use the examples of others, both positive and negative, to inform the choices we make about what kind of human being we want to be.

Joy H. Hance