“It’s not that we don’t care, we just know that the fight ain’t fair.”

John Mayer’s track, “Waiting on the World to Change” serves as an antithesis to the concept of civic engagement. Through the song, Mayer identifies that the world is not ideal, and that he, his community, and his generation wish they could change the way things are done. However, Mayer then asserts that he and his community, are too young; not influential enough, to have any capacity to change national and international policy. His provided solution is conveyed in the title of the song — wait until the world changes. In this way, Mayer describes that there is no obligation or even a meaning to civic engagement; all of our participation is ultimately futile until the world changes.

“Waiting on the World to Change” was written in 2006, in response to the exigencies of public dissatisfaction with the Iraq War and the response to Hurricane Katrina. Mayer created the song as an explanation of his generations’ political apathy towards these issues, and strategically used his power and place as a prominent musician to promote his political message to a wide audience, consisting of listeners across many generations.

However, across these age differences, two separate interpretations of the song’s message developed. Mayer’s intended message, appreciated by fans of similar age to Mayer, was to state his feeling of helplessness politically, particularly in relation to his and his generation’s disapproval of the Iraq War. This message gained traction during the kairotic events of the Iraq War, however after the war’s end, many people, particularly of older generations, began to criticize the song rather as a general call for political apathy.

Indeed, implicit in the song are the ideologies of apoliticism. However, the song is not an endorsement of these ideologies, but instead a disappointed reflection that holding any other strong political ideology will hardly bring a change about in the world. Mayer backs up this point with the commonplace that it’s nearly impossible to make a change as one person in a large society, (“We just feel like we don’t have the means / to rise above and beat it.”) Conversely however, Mayer ends with an optimistic message. Relying on the commonplace that things will get better with time, he reminds listeners that, “One day our generation / will rule the population,” and then, finally, the world will change.

Living in America in 2023, it can feel like no progress is being made in our society. With the upcoming presidential election, we can hope that things will finally begin to change for the better. But in the end, all we can do is cast our vote and, “keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change.”