Surviving Mankind / Après nous le déluge
Voice: Suno
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Surviving Mankind is a song of anticipation blending electro, world music, and philosophical satire. Through a post-apocalyptic vision of the world, it offers an uncompromising assessment of a humanity that has gradually turned its planet into a field of self-destruction.
The lyrics bring together the great anxieties of our time: climate disruption, wars, fanaticism, nuclear threat, ecological collapse, and political impotence. But rather than pointing to external culprits, the song highlights a collective responsibility. The arsonists, the firefighters, and the victims all belong to one and the same species.
Between black humour, biblical imagery, and references to the Apocalypse, the narrative also questions our fascination with end-of-the-world scenarios. Modern Noah’s arks, climate sceptics, eco-terrorists, and prophets of doom appear as different faces of the same anxiety: whether humanity still deserves to be saved.
Despite its apparent pessimism, the song retains a deeply human dimension. By reminding us that “we are all in the same boat”, it invites us less to despair than to become aware of our shared destiny.
A song about ecological collapse, humanity’s excesses, and the need to face the consequences of our collective choices.
The full lyrics of the song Surviving Mankind are presented here together with the audio recording.
Song inspired by Jean-Pierre Martinez’s play Surviving Mankind.
https://jeanpierremartinez.net/en/surviving-mankind/
Lyrics of the song
Il n’y a plus de saisons
C’est qu’on disait avant
C’est à cause de leur bombe atomique
Et on avait raison
C’était pour rire, c’est véridique
Le monde n’a plus qu’une seule saison
Un hiver nucléaire
On a brûlé notre maison
On a crié au feu
On a prié le Bon Dieu
Allumé des guerres de religion
L’histoire des hommes est une histoire de fous
Les pyromanes, c’était nous
Les pompiers incendiaires
Ça date pas d’hier
L’Humanité a déserté l’Homme
L’Homme a désertifié la Terre
Mais l’Humanité ne désertera pas la Terre
Quand on ne peut pas déserter, on devient le désert
Ceux qui croyaient au septième ciel
Les climato-sceptiques
Les cavaliers de l’Apocalypse
Les éco-terroristes
Ceux qui pensaient construire
Une arche pour s’enfuir
Y’a pas d’autre refuge
Après nous le déluge
De désaccords factices
En victoires coûte que coûte
De guerres en armistices
De défaites en déroutes
De réchauffement climatique
En fonte des glaces arctiques
De simple marée noire
En tsunami d’or noir
Il est arrivé le grand soir
On a tous planifié
Un suicide collectif
Falsifié l’ordonnance
De nos soins palliatifs
Le paradis; c’est trop loin pour y’aller à la nage
Et l’enfer
On n’échapp’ra pas au naufrage
Même si on manque pas d’air
On n’est pas des lumières
On se déplace pépère
On est trop terre à terre
Il est trop long, le voyage, à moins qu’on se téléporte
Les étoiles trop lointaines, elles sont déjà mortes
Ceux qui croyaient au septième ciel
Les climato-sceptiques
Les cavaliers de l’Apocalypse
Les éco-terroristes
Ceux qui pensaient construire
Une arche pour s’enfuir
Y’a pas d’autre refuge
Après nous le déluge
Si on pouvait encore sauver l’Humanité
Est-ce qu’elle mérite d’être sauvée
L’humanité, y’a pas que son bilan carbone
L’Humanité est une conne
Est-ce qu’il faut lui pardonner
Ceux qui croyaient au septième ciel
Ceux qui n’y croyaient pas trop
On est tous dans le même bateau
Le bateau coule, qu’est-ce qui reste
Un trou dans l’eau, et un arc-en-ciel
Y’a pas de refuge, pas de subterfuge
Après nous le déluge
J’aurais mieux fait de rester chez moi.
There are no more seasons —
That’s what people used to say.
“It’s because of their atomic bombs,”
And they were right after all.
It sounded like a joke, but it was true.
The world now has only one season:
A nuclear winter.
We burned down our own house,
Then cried out “Fire!”
We prayed to the Good Lord,
Started holy wars.
The history of mankind is a history of madmen.
The arsonists were us,
The firefighters set the fires too.
And that’s nothing new.
Humanity abandoned Man,
Man turned the Earth into a desert.
But Humanity will never desert the Earth.
When you cannot desert, you become the desert.
Those who believed in seventh heaven,
The climate skeptics,
The horsemen of the Apocalypse,
The eco-terrorists,
Those who thought they could build
An ark to escape.
There is no other refuge.
After us, the flood.
From fake disagreements
To victories at any cost,
From wars to armistices,
From defeats to disasters.
From global warming
To melting Arctic ice,
From a simple oil spill
To a tsunami of black gold.
And then came the final reckoning.
We all planned
A collective suicide,
Forged the prescription
For our own palliative care.
Paradise is too far away to swim to,
And hell —
We won’t escape the shipwreck.
Even if we’re not short of air,
We’re not exactly bright.
We move along real slow,
Too down-to-earth to rise above it all.
The journey is far too long, unless we teleport.
The stars are too far away — they’re already dead.
Those who believed in seventh heaven,
The climate skeptics,
The horsemen of the Apocalypse,
The eco-terrorists,
Those who thought they could build
An ark to escape.
There is no other refuge.
After us, the flood.
If we could still save Humanity,
Would it even deserve to be saved?
Humanity is more than its carbon footprint.
Humanity is a fool.
Should we forgive it?
Those who believed in seventh heaven,
Those who never quite believed,
We’re all in the same boat.
The ship is sinking — what remains?
A hole in the water, and a rainbow.
There is no refuge, no way around it.
After us, the flood.
You can listen to this song freely on this website. For any other use, please contact Jean-Pierre Martinez via the website’s contact form.