"When love is gone, there's always justice. And when justice is gone, there's always force. And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi, Mom!"

Laurie Anderson’s words present a playful yet poignant progression of human relationships and societal mechanisms. The sequence, love, justice, force, and finally, “Mom”, suggests a hierarchy or perhaps a degenerate path through various forms of connection and control. Love stands as the highest ideal, the most fulfilling and human means of relating. It’s empathetic and voluntary, binding people through care and affection. When love fades, the next recourse becomes justice, a formalized system ensuring fairness and equilibrium within society. Justice lacks the warmth of love but aspires to impartiality and order, setting rules when personal bonds no longer suffice.

If justice proves inadequate or collapses, perhaps due to corruption or apathy, what remains is force. This is the sphere of coercion, where power establishes order not through mutual agreement or fairness, but brute strength or threat. Societies, and individuals, may fall back on force when higher values break down, relying on authority and violence as a last defense against chaos.

But Anderson’s progression doesn’t end in this dire circumstance. Instead, she adds a surprising and intimate coda: when force fails, “there’s always Mom.” The invocation of “Mom” hearkens to the primal, nurturing figure present even when all societal constructs dissolve. It acknowledges the foundational role of caregivers, especially mothers, as a last resort and source of unconditional support. In moments when love, justice, and order vanish, one turns back to the maternal origins, looking for comfort, reassurance, and rescue.

Anderson’s inclusion of “Hi, Mom!” injects humor and immediacy, breaking the tension and grounding the abstraction in personal reality. It’s a wink to universal experience, no matter how sophisticated our systems become, we remain tethered to childhood needs and the sheltering presence of someone who cares.