I wasn't sure where to go with it and partly because it's so preposterously Dylanesque that, at the time, it was kind of annoying.

Heh. There was a time, because my family were good, politically active folkies,* every Christmas would include several folk music albums, including the latest Dylan, and we'd play them all day. Then, one year, Mom banned Dylan from the gift list -- by the end of his albums, we'd all be carping and sniping at each other. Looking back on it, I think that was because his unrelenting message was that the world is going to Hell, and it's all Their fault, and we'd internalize that message and turn it on the people around us.

The first 3 of your 4 verses are all about what the other fools are doing wrong, or doing right for the wrong reasons (though I do like the line The simple act of walking is too obvious to try). Seems to me that the direction the song wants to go in is in the last verse, with the voices in the wilderness who are trying to speak up for peace and justice. Perhaps you should move that to the front, and spend the song expanding that idea -- talk about how there are some, in the middle of all the hype, who are quietly working for peace, and then, if you really must put down the fools, save it for the last verse, as a contrast.

*(My mother was president of Clearwater when that organization sued G.E. for dumping PCBs in the Hudson... she also was the first person to on the board to back Pete Seeger's plans for the Revival)