The wise men, the wise men, they do not know a thing;
They've gotten into leadership by tilting at the ring,
By wheeling, by dealing, by talking through their hat,
And when it comes to world affairs they're blind as a bat.

Chorus:
The wise men, the wise men
They'll finish us for sure,
The fools we can endure,
But Heaven knows the cure
For the wisdom of the wise, wise, men.

The wise men, the wise men, they give me a pain;
They don't know enough to come in out of the rain;
The rain is filled with poison, it falls on good and ill;
If fall-out doesn't get you the firestorms will.

(Chorus)

Their words flow like a river, they dazzle in your eyes,
A prestidigitation of half truths and lies,
Meanwhile the war machine goes rolling on and on:
The tapes will still be talking when everybody's gone.

(Chorus)

Your fate and my fate, the fate of all the lands
Are being wildly juggled in their butterfinger hands:
The lobby's there to nudge them to let something fall,
Down tumbles U.N., world peace and all.

(Chorus)

The wise men, the wise men, let's lock them in a room
And set them all to talking of megatons and doom,
And let them play at juggling maps and changing every border
And we won't let them out again 'til all the world's in order.

(Chorus)

The wise men, the wise men, they do not know a thing;
They've gotten into leadership by tilting at the ring,
By wheeling, by dealing, by talking through their hat,
And when it comes to world affairs they're blind as a bat.