One of my favorite songs ever is Vietnow by Rage Against the Machine. For those who do not know, Rage Against the Machine is a left-wing political rap-rock band, known for championing such causes as the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, and the rights of Mexican immigrants. They are huge supporters of the cop killers Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Leonard Peltier, both of whom they claim are political prisoners. Personally, I do not agree with almost any of their politics, yet there are a few songs of theirs that are amazing and I can sympathize with them on. Vietnow is one of those songs.
Just listening to the song, almost all you can hear is the anger and the most common line, “Fear is your only God on the radio”. Right there, we see that Zack de la Rocha, the singer of Rage and a true poet, is sending an important message on media. Looking at the lyrics, one can see that this song is all about the media. The entire song is how the radio, or media in general, has bred fear in us, and we have allowed it to control us, with lines like “Terror is tha product ya push,” and “sheep tremble an here come tha votes”.
I may not agree with them about their politics, but isn’t there something to learn from this song? During the elections, how many people voted based on their fears? Whether it is a fear of economic issues, war, terrorists, or your own government, a primary factor in people’s political activity is based upon this fear. How else are they taught fear, but from the media. Today, if you turn the news on you’ll hear about swine flu and the economy, or you’ll hear about the war in
The only way to escape the fear caused by media is to know that they are breeding fear. There is no way you can “shut down tha devil sound”, but you can at least know what it is.
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