[Intro: Howard Zinn]
Governments lie all the time. Well, not just the American government, it's just in the nature of governments. Well, they have to lie. And since they don't represent the people, and so since they act against the interest of the people, the only way they can hold power is if they lie to the people...
[Ophelia of the Spirits]
You don't know what I know
You can't see the spreading stain of deception
I am cruel to myself
Things will never be the same
[Howard Zinn]
If they told people the truth, they wouldn't last very long.
[Ophelia of the Spirits]
I will hold my silence
Like a weapon in my hand
If I used it I would murder myself
You could never understand
Columbus came ashore, greeted with nothin' but niceness
Sailin' west in attempt to find gold and spices
Dominated by the popes in frenzy for ices
The Catholic church expelled Jews and claimed it was righteous
The first man to see land would get a reward
And get a yearly pension for life, clearly from God
A young sailor saw land, said, "We isn't far!"
Columbus lied, said he saw it the evening before
They touched ground, they were greeted by the Arawak
Columbus had them locked up as prisoners in an hour flat
He wanted to find their source of gold and that was that
And when they thought that wasn't fair then he stabbed their back
When there was no more gold, he took slaves instead
And left a quarter million Indians in Haiti dead
The men died in mines, the women died at work
The children died from lack of milk and they died in the dirt
They were just takin' advantage of a passive people
They were just bein' the savages of massive evil
That's the church work, that's the path of massive ego
That's the blood of Abraham bein' stabbed by the steeple
In 1619 they were patiently waitin'
For a ship that carried slaves that was changin' the nation
The white man was a cannibal, prayin' to Satan
Hatred, contempt, a pity of patronization
That's the cornerstone of everything racism based in
The African had a more advanced civilization
Black was slave, master was white, rationalization
Fifty million dead, that's Western civilization
At first they appeared in the north
And they were helpless in the face of superior force
And all of them were chained together, they really was lost
Racism isn't natural, it's merely divorce
Before the slave trade, black was considered distasteful
By the Oxford dictionary, I find it disgraceful
It's not a natural tendency to be bitter and hateful
It's the natural enemy of the critical staple
Slavery grew as the plantation system grew
The reason for that's kinda easily traceable
Society of helpless dependence was capable
Of saying, "Fuck a slave master! You're in slavery too!"
Seven slaves were put to death for murderin' Master
Fear of slave revolt had them developin' faster
You a Cataline killer, ineloquent bastard
I would burn the white man while smellin' the ashes
From time to time, white man was part of the resistance
White indentured servants wanted no part of the system
King Philip's War showed that if people would listen
Then they can maybe break the complex chain of oppression
Tyranny is tyranny, but that's a concession
But the women, they was treated like that of possessions
Black women had it worse 'cause they was abused
That's the white justification, the Aryan blues
The next move was to dominate the Mexicans
James Polk dominated them like they was next of kin
He sent Colonel Cross to lie to them and let them in
Eleven days later his skull was crushed, so message sent
"We take nothing by conquest," that was the mantra
The military wasn't human, they was just monsters
Henry David Thoreau refused to pay his taxes
Denounced the Mexican War and got locked in shackles
The twentieth century opened, anger re-emerged
Reality of ordinary life was bein' heard
Anarchists and feminists came from factory work
Communism, socialism, seemed to be re-birthed
“War is the health of the state” is what Bourne said
And if you was born around that time, you was born dead
The Espionage Act had people confused
'Cause it was double talk, and they ain’t know how it’d be used
Supposedly it was an act against spyin'
Dubois knew that that was bullshit and they was lyin'
Charles Schenck was arrested in Philadelphia
For printin' and distributin' leaflets 'cause they was helpin' ya
He was indicted, tried and then found guilty
And spent six months in jail, don’t that sound silly?
Had his freedom taken away by his own nation
But there’s a lesson, do not submit to intimidation
The act still exists today and this shit is real
Supposedly, Kennedy tried to have that shit appealed
Eugene Debs did ten years for no purpose
He obstructed the recruiting and enlistment service
The post office started takin' mail privileges
Of magazines who printed anti-war sentiments
A Socialist named Fairchild had it right
He said that, “They can shoot me, but they can’t make me fight!"
They sentenced him to a year in jail and that was reckless
Sixty-five thousand men, conscientious objectors
They were sent to army bases to work there
They were treated sadistically and were hurt there
They were strangled with the hemp rope till they collapsed
And officers punched they stomach and they lower back
A garden hose was placed on they face with a nozzle
About six inches from them so they couldn’t swallow
The war ended in nineteen hundred and eighteen
The government was just tryin' to wipe the slate clean
Hemingway wrote 'Farewell to Arms'
Dalton Trumbo wrote 'Johnny Got His Gun'
The war was over, but they didn’t learn they lesson
Twin tactics of control, reform and repression
The patriotic fervor of war had been invoked
That’s why the country that you live in is a fuckin' joke!
You cannot be neutral on a moving train
This is a story about the lies that your teacher told you
This is real, actual, factual
No lies in the whole record
If you don’t believe me, look it up!
I’m tryin' to share the shit that I learned with y'all
Do the knowledge!
Your government does not care about you
The people in power do not care about you
Understand that! Power to the people!
[Howard Zinn]
War is like a fix. You know, you get high on war — “We won! We won!" — and then you look down on the ground again and you need another fix, you need another war. Why do you think we’ve had war after war after war after war? Every war, they say: “This is the end. This is the last war.” In World War I, they said: “This is the war to end all wars.” And then, not long after that, was World War II. And then soon the United States was waging war in Korea, and then Vietnam. If you study history, what you learn is that wars are always accompanied by lies. Wars are always accompanied by deception.
Governments lie all the time. Well, not just the American government, it's just in the nature of governments. Well, they have to lie. And since they don't represent the people, and so since they act against the interest of the people, the only way they can hold power is if they lie to the people...
[Ophelia of the Spirits]
You don't know what I know
You can't see the spreading stain of deception
I am cruel to myself
Things will never be the same
[Howard Zinn]
If they told people the truth, they wouldn't last very long.
[Ophelia of the Spirits]
I will hold my silence
Like a weapon in my hand
If I used it I would murder myself
You could never understand
Columbus came ashore, greeted with nothin' but niceness
Sailin' west in attempt to find gold and spices
Dominated by the popes in frenzy for ices
The Catholic church expelled Jews and claimed it was righteous
The first man to see land would get a reward
And get a yearly pension for life, clearly from God
A young sailor saw land, said, "We isn't far!"
Columbus lied, said he saw it the evening before
They touched ground, they were greeted by the Arawak
Columbus had them locked up as prisoners in an hour flat
He wanted to find their source of gold and that was that
And when they thought that wasn't fair then he stabbed their back
When there was no more gold, he took slaves instead
And left a quarter million Indians in Haiti dead
The men died in mines, the women died at work
The children died from lack of milk and they died in the dirt
They were just takin' advantage of a passive people
They were just bein' the savages of massive evil
That's the church work, that's the path of massive ego
That's the blood of Abraham bein' stabbed by the steeple
In 1619 they were patiently waitin'
For a ship that carried slaves that was changin' the nation
The white man was a cannibal, prayin' to Satan
Hatred, contempt, a pity of patronization
That's the cornerstone of everything racism based in
The African had a more advanced civilization
Black was slave, master was white, rationalization
Fifty million dead, that's Western civilization
At first they appeared in the north
And they were helpless in the face of superior force
And all of them were chained together, they really was lost
Racism isn't natural, it's merely divorce
Before the slave trade, black was considered distasteful
By the Oxford dictionary, I find it disgraceful
It's not a natural tendency to be bitter and hateful
It's the natural enemy of the critical staple
Slavery grew as the plantation system grew
The reason for that's kinda easily traceable
Society of helpless dependence was capable
Of saying, "Fuck a slave master! You're in slavery too!"
Seven slaves were put to death for murderin' Master
Fear of slave revolt had them developin' faster
You a Cataline killer, ineloquent bastard
I would burn the white man while smellin' the ashes
From time to time, white man was part of the resistance
White indentured servants wanted no part of the system
King Philip's War showed that if people would listen
Then they can maybe break the complex chain of oppression
Tyranny is tyranny, but that's a concession
But the women, they was treated like that of possessions
Black women had it worse 'cause they was abused
That's the white justification, the Aryan blues
The next move was to dominate the Mexicans
James Polk dominated them like they was next of kin
He sent Colonel Cross to lie to them and let them in
Eleven days later his skull was crushed, so message sent
"We take nothing by conquest," that was the mantra
The military wasn't human, they was just monsters
Henry David Thoreau refused to pay his taxes
Denounced the Mexican War and got locked in shackles
The twentieth century opened, anger re-emerged
Reality of ordinary life was bein' heard
Anarchists and feminists came from factory work
Communism, socialism, seemed to be re-birthed
“War is the health of the state” is what Bourne said
And if you was born around that time, you was born dead
The Espionage Act had people confused
'Cause it was double talk, and they ain’t know how it’d be used
Supposedly it was an act against spyin'
Dubois knew that that was bullshit and they was lyin'
Charles Schenck was arrested in Philadelphia
For printin' and distributin' leaflets 'cause they was helpin' ya
He was indicted, tried and then found guilty
And spent six months in jail, don’t that sound silly?
Had his freedom taken away by his own nation
But there’s a lesson, do not submit to intimidation
The act still exists today and this shit is real
Supposedly, Kennedy tried to have that shit appealed
Eugene Debs did ten years for no purpose
He obstructed the recruiting and enlistment service
The post office started takin' mail privileges
Of magazines who printed anti-war sentiments
A Socialist named Fairchild had it right
He said that, “They can shoot me, but they can’t make me fight!"
They sentenced him to a year in jail and that was reckless
Sixty-five thousand men, conscientious objectors
They were sent to army bases to work there
They were treated sadistically and were hurt there
They were strangled with the hemp rope till they collapsed
And officers punched they stomach and they lower back
A garden hose was placed on they face with a nozzle
About six inches from them so they couldn’t swallow
The war ended in nineteen hundred and eighteen
The government was just tryin' to wipe the slate clean
Hemingway wrote 'Farewell to Arms'
Dalton Trumbo wrote 'Johnny Got His Gun'
The war was over, but they didn’t learn they lesson
Twin tactics of control, reform and repression
The patriotic fervor of war had been invoked
That’s why the country that you live in is a fuckin' joke!
You cannot be neutral on a moving train
This is a story about the lies that your teacher told you
This is real, actual, factual
No lies in the whole record
If you don’t believe me, look it up!
I’m tryin' to share the shit that I learned with y'all
Do the knowledge!
Your government does not care about you
The people in power do not care about you
Understand that! Power to the people!
[Howard Zinn]
War is like a fix. You know, you get high on war — “We won! We won!" — and then you look down on the ground again and you need another fix, you need another war. Why do you think we’ve had war after war after war after war? Every war, they say: “This is the end. This is the last war.” In World War I, they said: “This is the war to end all wars.” And then, not long after that, was World War II. And then soon the United States was waging war in Korea, and then Vietnam. If you study history, what you learn is that wars are always accompanied by lies. Wars are always accompanied by deception.
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Album: God of the Serengeti
Il titolo di questa canzone viene da un famoso saggio dello storico Howard Zinn e anche di un documentario sulla vita dello storico americano, un cui discorso è utilizzato come introduzione e come finale.
Su un treno che si dirige verso una destinazione non puoi fingere di essere neutrale. La tua presunta neutralità non farà niente per cambiare il percorso del treno, e non importa che tu sia neutrale o che tu voglia raggiungere la destinazione, il treno ci arriverà lo stesso. Allo stesso modo quelli che non fanno niente contro un sistema ingiusto, come la schiavitù, il razzismo, il capitalismo o ogni altra forma di discriminazione stanno di fatto collaborando con gli oppressori.
In questa lunga canzone, arricchita dal campionamento di "House of Cards" di Ophelia Of The Spirits, Vinnie Paz tratta molti temi: dallo sterminio dei nativi americani, alla tratta degli schiavi fino al trattamento riservato agli obbiettori di coscienza durante la prima guerra mondiale.
Rimandiamo a Genius per approfondire i fatti storici a cui fa riferimento questo rap.