Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade

Quench the thirst of the power dons

1. Marginalized and disempowered communities and cultures in these United States have a not-entirely-unique viewpoint from which to simultaneously exist in and chronicle their times. The nerds, the kids in the street, the poor, the Black, and the Brown all have a valuable observation deck to watch the inside while circling the fringe. When they release their dispatches and reports, it’s often ugly. While writing as Richard Bachman in 1982’s The Running Man, Stephen King, nerd par excellence, describes the United States as a dystopia with the world economy in ruins and violence rising the world over. The film doubles down on the theme, as it’s set in 2017 and a game show host is popular enough and powerful enough to make a run at the presidency amid a totalitarian state that also sees the government pacify citizens through violent reality television programs. Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 science-fiction movie Robocop depicts corporate America aiding criminals to incite riots to lower property value and buy up a major American city while privatizing the city’s (Detroit’s) police force. Science fiction is WILD, y’all. Enter 1996. Firebrand activists Rage Against the Machine returned four years after their eponymous debut with a brand-new, 11-track manifesto dubbed Evil Empire - a reference to the term used by the Reagan Administration and many conservatives to describe the Soviet Union. Rage Against the Machine wasn’t talking about the old U.S.S.R. No, they were taking aim at corporate America, cultural imperialism, government oppression, and systemic racism - you know, the classics. The only thing in common these fellas had with the old U.S.S.R. was their affinity for Molotov Cocktails.

   

   Professional revolutionary Vyacheslav Molotov, 1917

2. Packed with ugly, unsavory truths, Bulls on Parade bats second on Evil Empire following the equally intense People of the Sun. The band’s recipe was Voltron on arrival - fully formed, so there is not much growth sonically from their first to their second album. Tom Morello’s guitar pyrotechnics have gotten deeper and wider, but little else has changed. Zack de la Rocha has spent time in the lab with his pen and pad and emerged with fierce polemics and renewed urgency. Sure, sex is awesome, but have you ever fucked the system? Zach must’ve read a bit about the rise of the military-industrial complex because he comes roaring in with a pocket full of shells, a Mexican-American Noam Chomsky loaded on a mixture of gunpowder and cocaine looking for a fight, while his cohort Tom Morello arrives brandishing his own weapon of mass disruption.

   In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

   -President Dwight D. Eisenhower, farewell address, 1961.

   The song’s title conjures images of a surreal military spectacle, where the mighty bull, symbolizing power and aggression, is paraded around like a conquering hero. But instead of majestic horns and flowing capes, we're presented with a grotesque display of militarism run amok — a parade not of glory, but of folly and a festering wound.

   Terror rains drenchin'
   Quenchin' the thirst of the power dons
   That five-sided Fistagon
   The rotten sore on the face of Mother Earth gets bigger

   And then we get to the prognostication so readily available in the very best science fiction, hip hop, and punk. This is the stuff marginalized groups confront regularly:

   Weapons, not food, not homes, not shoes
   Not need, just feed the war, cannibal animal, I
   Walk the corner to the rubble
   That used to be a library, line up to the mind cemetery now
   What we don't know keeps the contracts alive and movin'
   They don't gotta burn the books, they just remove 'em

   And not one lie was detected.

3. You see, in America, books are more dangerous than guns, this is why politicians in Iowa seem more concerned about the literary artillery in teachers' hands than the firearms strapped to their hips. Plenty of school boards celebrate Jackie Robinson’s place in the great American pastime, but won’t allow schools to explain the real pitch as to why Jackie’s contributions were significant. Plenty of school boards have banned To Kill a Mockingbird because it’s uncomfortable, which is hilarious because that’s literally the point of the fucking novel. All of that is awful enough, but what’s worse is that it eliminates the chance for children to ask the questions that need to be asked and answered by every generation. There is nothing more appealing than a locked door, so the moment you tell a populace they can’t, they’re going to go all Sherlock and investigate why they can’t. Banning books is screaming, "I'm scared witless, so you should be too!" This is why the Taliban shot and nearly killed Malala Yousafzai - a well-read young person is dangerous to antiquated ways of thinking. It's self-preservation wrapped up in a neat little bow. Those who chucked rocks at Ruby Bridges don't exactly want their grandkids to find out about their stone-throwing escapades, do they? Keeping Black people out of baseball was racism, but it was also a way to protect jobs.

   Rage Against the Machine hasn’t been coy or clever in their intention. EVER. Then again, these are the same people who don’t read, and we know they don’t listen.

   

   Scared and illiterate of a changing status quo… I know I’ve heard this refrain before, and of course, these toolbags might have heard Rage Against the Machine, but they damn sure weren’t listening.

   *LATE ADDITION*

   I’m writing this at my brother’s home in New Orleans and he happened to have a stack of photos on his table from our senior year, which led me to this discovery:

   

   Juvenile humor and all, sporting a RATM shirt while editing our high school literary magazine.