Short-changed

0. Lyrics to song

Intro/Jingle:
We're all short-changed, 
&c. 

1):
I gave you everything, 
what did I get in return? 
A bunch of phony roses, 
a back-handed spurn. 
You promised me success, 
if I'd become accentless. 
What if it was all façade? 
Accommodative courtesy-card?
Seductive lights twinkling from afar.
 

Ref. 1):
Short-changed egregiously, 
we've all been taken for chumps. 
Short-changed surreptitiously, 
been sold a block beyond the black stump. 
Snake-oil salesmen in lofty places, 
promising victories in high-tech races. 
Sheltered tallow-faced in their carapaces. 

2): 
Science tells us we're a species,
If it were only being facetious.
Plenty of evidence a posteriori,
Whatever happened to the a priori?
Experiments galore, 
statistically regist'ring the score.
Rigging with crass naïvety,
Kow-towing to effectivity.
If it works, they say,
it must be true.
 

Ref. 2): 
Short-changed beyond belief, 
but disinclined to corner the thief. 
Short-changed as a matter of course, 
hobbling on a hackney horse. 
Top scientists mounting their steeds,
Self-praising their progressive deeds,
although from bowing we're all camel-kneed. 

Outro/Jingle: 
We're all short-changed.
&c. 

1. MP3 audio file 

Short-changed  MP3 audio file