Stevie Wonder did not write a protest song in 1974. He wrote a subpoena, served in public, with the Jackson 5 on background vocals. The clavinet riff is a typewriter slammed on a desk. The message is three words long: you have produced nothing. The single was released on August 7, 1974. Richard Nixon resigned the next day. That is not timing. That is a verdict the public had already delivered, and Stevie simply wrote it down and handed it to the radio.
Civic Language Turned Inside Out
We are amazed but not amused
By all the things you say that you'll do
Though much concerned but not involved
With decisions that are made by you
Every verb in this stanza is a political word. Amazed. Concerned. Involved. Stevie negates each one before it can land. Not amused. Not involved. This is the grammar of a people who sat through every press conference, heard every promise, and learned to measure the distance between the podium and the check cashed. The couplet structure -- amazed/amused, concerned/involved -- mirrors the circular logic of political speech. You hear the same sentence rephrased four different ways and it still means nothing.
