An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community. Institutions are identified with a social purpose and permanence, transcending individual human lives and intention by enforcing rules that govern cooperative human behavior.
The term "institution" is commonly applied to customs and behavior patterns important to a society, as well as to particular formal organizations of government and public services. As structures and mechanisms of social order among humans, institutions are one of the principal objects of study in the social sciences, such as political science, anthropology, economics, and sociology (the latter being described by Durkheim as the "science of institutions, their genesis and their functioning"). Institutions are also a central concern for law, the formal mechanism for political rule-making and enforcement.
In an extended context:
Although individual, formal organizations, commonly identified as "institutions," may be deliberately and intentionally created by people, the development and functioning of institutions in society in general may be regarded as an instance of emergence; that is, institutions arise, develop and function in a pattern of social self-organization, which goes beyond the conscious intentions of the individual humans involved.
Your last name is sold
Your institution now in my control
Your words repossessed
Now come identify all your personal effects
I'm tapping your phone and I'm stealing lips
I'm scrapping every bone of our old sinking ship
Reimburse my transgressions
In your Sunday best
Maintain the calm in the face of unrest
Your small talk's a crime
Let's maximize use of our remaining time
Don't sell me out when we're losing ground
Don't want to be a part of this institution
Want to rip it, I can't take it
I throw a fist in this institution
Too many lies are sold for nothing
Independent, start the movement
We want to start our own revolution
You can take these rules and shove it
(You can take these rules and shove it)
We won't conform to be accepted
(I won't be conformed accepted)
Suffered too long desperate for a change
You and I stand, united
Suffered too long desperate for a change
You and I stand, united
Suffered too long desperate for a change
Hollow casings, chromatic magnums
Put bullets in this constitution
Of written lies that kill their own kind
We're the people, it's the people
We're the people that run this country
Scraps for a billion as they build their fortune
You and I stand, united
Suffered too long desperate for a change
You and I stand, united
Suffered too long desperate for a change
We won't take this, this institution
Too many lies are sold for nothing
We won't take this, this institution
We will united
Every time that you can always see
You wanna see the light
But you can never ever see the day
You can only see the day when
You choose to see the light