Discover the story of the song > Short Memory – Midnight Oil

The song talks about historical events where powerful nations have taken advantage of weaker ones. The protagonist mentions events like colonization in Africa, the use of atomic bombs in Japan, and genocide in Cambodia. He also talks about how people seem to forget about these events very easily. The chorus repeats the phrase "short memory" to emphasize this point. The protagonist questions when people will start learning from history instead of repeating the same mistakes over and over again.