This conflict started August 2nd when the dictator of Iraq invaded a small and helpless neighbor. Kuwait -- a member of the Arab League and a member of the United Nations -- was crushed; its people, brutalized. Five months ago, Saddam Hussein started this cruel war against Kuwait. Tonight, the battle has been joined.
-excerpt from President Bush's speech informing the public about the Persian Gulf War
The United States of America, the
greatest nation Earth, fighting for the little
guy.
The Great Hero fighting against an Invading Tyrant.
I must have been
six or
seven years old, and I was
damned proud of
MY nation. I saw tremendous streams of tracer rounds for the
AAA glaring greenly in the electronically enhanced night sky, explosions, and buildings crumbling, ablaze. I never considered the idea that people were
dying. I didn't understand horror. I had the mind of a child; I thought childish thoughts.
Zack De La Rocha was an adult; he thought adult thoughts. The song Testify, written by Zack and performed by Rage Against the Machine, takes a frank viewpoint about the media's disingenousness targeted to form a comfortable public opinion of the war.
OH!
The movie
ran through me
The Glamour
subdue me
The tabloid
untie me
I'm empty
please fill me
Nightly television news programmes are nothing more than government or corporate
disinfotainment. Sensationalism rules mass media; ignoring reality, ignoring the truth. The average viewer depends on these lies for their information about world events, and thus suffers the properly biased perception.
Mister anchor
assure me
That Baghdad
is burning
Your voice it is so soothing
That cunning mantra of killing
I need you
my witness
To dress this up so bloodless
To numb me
and purge me now
Of thoughts of blaming you
The most common footage of the war I remember seeing is the camera view of a
cruise missile burrowing its way into a bunker. Night after night the anchors would comment on how the military forces present were more efficient, modern, and superior than their counterparts. Estimated amounts of casualties and the importance of
human death was placed beneath the mild counterirritant of razing
evil edifices.
Yes the car is
our wheelchair
My witness
your coughing
Oily silence mocks the legless ones
who travel now in coffins
The simile of automobiles being a wheelchair is used to illustrate the idea that our society is crippled, and without gasoline hungry motorized transportation, our functionality is seriously impaired. "Oily silence" is the news' corporately influenced silence about the real objective of the war. The mocking Zack rhymes about emphasizes the importance of economic reasons instead of societal reasons in the war. "Legless ones" is most likely a reference to land mine victims.
But on the corner
The jury's sleepless
We found your weakness
And it's right outside your door
Now testify
Now testify
And it's right outside your door
Now testify
yes, testify
it's right outside your door
With precision
you feed me
My witness
I'm hungry
Your temple
it calms me
So I can carry on
The media, like all expensive communication machines and spectrums, are extraordinarily careful with their choice of information to broadcast. He calls it a temple to further show how doctrine must be followed; that deviation is veritably heretical. The message may be exciting, but it is ultimately devoid of truly disturbing thoughts. Therefore it is calming the audience and lulling them into a state of heartfelt acceptance.
My slaving,
sweating,
The skin right off my bones
On a bed of fire
This imagery used to evoke a better understanding of the physical condition of the troops.
I'm choking
On the smoke that fills my home
The wrecking ball is rushing
Witness
your blushing
The pipeline
is gushing
While here we lie in tombs
Hussein held his promise concerning forceful Iraqi eviction from
Kuwait. Greater than seven hundred oil wells were ignited during evacuation. Kuwaiti oil officials claimed destruction or heavy damage to all of their oil fields as a result of the Iraqi actions. Although the war had been won by coalition forces, it was somewhat of a
Pyrrhic victory.
While on the corner
The jury's sleepless
We found your weakness
And it's right outside your door
Now testify
yeah testify
it's right outside your door
Now testify
Now testify
And it's right outside your door
(Mass graves for the pump and the price is set)
(and the price is set)
(Mass graves for the pump and the price is set)
(and the price is set)
Conspicuously absent from most reports were the
efficacious techniques for the
disposal of Iraqi troops.
(Mass graves for the pump and the price is set)
(and the price is set)
(Mass graves for the pump and the price is set)
(and the price is set)
This war was a war for resources- the human interest side was nothing more than a mountain of flowers to hide the bills.
Who controls the past now
controls the future
Who controls the present now
controls the past
Who controls the past now
controls the future
Who controls the present now?
The
Oceania Party slogan from
1984 further enforces the feelings that the
Ministry of Truth is alive and well in our modern world.
Now testify
Testify
And it's right outside your door
Now testify
Testify
It's right outside your door
The most important thematic metaphor in this song is that of a trial. National governments and mass media play the role of the accused criminals, the news anchors are the witnesses reporting events, and we, the viewers, compose the jury aware of public mollification.
Italicized lyrics indicates the use of a delay. Lyrics contained in parentheses are whispered. My own opinions are not entirely similar to those presented here. Instead, I have tried to interpret them as they were written.