How Bob Dylan, Nobel Laureate, Predicted the Future

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There’s a lot of opinions today about whether or not Bob Dylan, father of folk, should have won The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2016. But we’re more interested in the fact that the dude was a prophet, and his lyrics, poetry or song, quite literally predicted the future.

On “License to Kill” (1984), for example, he basically sets the stage for climate change, and the impact of war and green on the earth, even if the term had not been invented yet:

Man thinks ’cause he rules the earth he can do with it as he please

And if things don’t change soon, he will.

Oh, man has invented his doom,

First step was touching the moon.

And then, on “Talkin’ World War III Blues” (1963), the famous dystopian track, he croons about the fear driven by not understanding the people around you. Sounds like Election 2016:

Down the corner by the hot-dog stand

I seen a man, I said, “Howdy friend

I guess there’s just us two”

He screamed a bit and away he flew

Thought I was a Communist

On “Union Sundown” (1986), Dylan’s getting grips on globalization, as well as the supply chain and labor issues perpetuated by pretty much every company, from H&M to Nike:

Well, my shoes, they comes from Singapore

My flashlight’s from Taiwan

My tablecloth’s from Malayisia

My belt buckle’s from the Amazon

You know, this shirt I wear comes from the Philippines

And the car I drive is a Chevrolet

It was put together down in Argentina

By a guy making thirty cents a day.

Well, it’s sundown on the union

And what’s made in the USA

Sure was a good idea

‘Til greed got in the way.

Dylan even has a song called “Isis” (1976). But let’s not stretch here.

The thing is, maybe Dylan didn’t need to be a prophet to see what was going to happen in a few decades. Maybe he was just in the middle of a garden, watching the seeds get planted, sitting still enough to know what would happen when they were watered.

But the fact that his words ring as true today as they did 30 or 60 years ago makes him a genius, with or without the Nobel Prize. At the very least, we can probably all agree that one time he passed on teaching a superintelligent computer how to sing was a pretty boss move.