Mos Def - Life in Marvelous Times

Ends don't meet where the arms can't reach
Mean streets -- even when its free, it ain't cheap
On-going saga: terminal diagnosis
Basic survival requires super heroics
No space in the budget for a cape
It's when you gotta fly by night to save the day
Crash-landings routinely happen
Some survive; others never rise from the ashes

Fantastic lyricism, but it's pretty bleak stuff. It begs the question: what's with the song title? Life in Marvelous Times? It's line after line about the oppressive nature of inner-city life.  But then --

And we are alive in amazing times
Delicate hearts, diabolical minds
Revelations, hatred, love and war
And more and more and more and more
And more of less than ever before
It's just too much "more" for your mind to absorb
It's scary like hell, but there's no doubt
We can't be alive in no time but now

Life's tough -- for some of us more than others. But we have to make the best of it.  What other option do we have?