Mr. Mister: Welcome to the Real World (1985)

't was one of my favourite albums, when I was a teenager. It's obviously drenched in guilt, even remorse, but about what?

According to its lyrics it's about failing to be what you understand to be right, but it's not about weakness, so...

The only resolution then is that something might be right, but you feel that you have other things to do.

Only, the lyrics never go there and songs that do tend to complain: Why won't you let me be?

What then is the secret that shan't be named?

In what sense is the singer lacking?

Here, this is right, you understand that it's right, do you want to be something else? No? Why then do you fail to be it? Don't you believe in it? But you can be it. Have a little faith. (Btw., kudos to Owen Shroyer for that generic teenager trash Disturbing Behavior he recommended.)

I, of course, was under a horrible strain to participate in things I did not believe in, yet knew that I had to if I didn't want to be ground to minced meat. And with every year the anguish got stronger. Finally, after 13 years, I left school behind me and after another year of military training I got some air at the university.

I had fled into computer programming to see things develop as I wanted them to. But there is no word in German for faith, just Glaube, which means belief, so nobody ever stepped up to me and told me to have faith where I believed in frustration. Though, once my conscience was pushed, when I was asked to select a Bible verse for my confirmation. I saw it as my duty to profess my belief in God. I also saw it as my duty not to lie. For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. Uh-huh, that's why Marco stuffed my underwear into the toilet, while I was in the pool. And so it went on. I didn't show any emotion, nor said a thing. I just went through the heap of verses, read, reflected, put the verse on another pile and continued. Then, pretty much towards the bottom, I was almost shocked: Really? This is really here? Since all, who let themselves be guided by the spirit of God, are sons of God. The German was an alliteration fest: Denn alle, die sich vom Geist Gottes leiten lassen, sind Söhne Gottes, so, the replacement of children by sons might have been artistically motivated, but since the verse was supposed to refer to me, I didn't bother much about the omission of His daughters. It's based on Paul paraphrasing John 1:12-13. Of course, John 1-18 is the good part, but they don't offer many confirmation verses from that section. John 1:2, for instace, would be a nice way to call the congregation divorced from God.

Well, what is a man to do when confronted with preconceived choices? Choose whatever way seems fairest to him and then try to fit in best he can? Living in the real world tends to do that to you. You become responsible for your actions when you act.  But should you at all? Or, differently put, on what basis are you supposed to? What do you need to have achieved before you do in a certain area?

You must know what your actions are supposed to achieve and have a decent understanding of the difficulties getting there. Your belief will guide you to it by withholding faith. Now, I think Mr. Mister has drenched Welcome to the Real World in guilt and even remorse solely to appeal to teenagers, without giving any definite advice, yet on a purely instinctive level the clash of moral demands with your belief and the conscience that is duty-bound to propel you to understanding will make its case.