Originally Posted by TheUsedToolguy

The message I get from that statement or a song like Bullet in the Head, or Wake Up, is just that. WAKE UP!! Our capitalist economy was clearly set up to greatly benefit a select few in this country. Then our government took further steps to ensure a herd of docile, submissive ignoramuses to fill the jobs in our factories. They did this by controlling what is taught in school. Ever since the industrial revolution, they have put a lot of weight on repetition in schools. What's sick, is that, in the earliest grades, certain kids are made to feel left out, and are made fun of for their inability or inadequacy at reading. So, right off the bat, they feel inferior. Oh, but don't worry, there is a place for you in society - it's called factories, and the jobs that no one wants. After successfully crushing their self-esteem, we then do a great job to encourage poor and mediocre students that, while they're not special, there is a place in society for them. We teach Punctuality(get to work on time) Repetitiveness (learn the same f*cking thing over and over again, hence do the same f*cking thing over and over again @ your job) and conformity (don't think for yourself: listen to your teacher/employer-they are right). This explains why exceptional students are often left behind, or just flat out bored as f*ck in school. With more and more people in society, this strategy is no longer working. More people made to feel inferior, living in more cramped quarters, with less personal space, is beginning to take its toll on our society. Rage's message from the statement you posted could easily be construed as 'learn to think for yourself,' and clearly this is the most important statement a band could make. I personally find a person like Zach de la Rocha to have massive heart, and saying that people who whine about personal problems to be the genuine ones, while Zach played right outside the Democratic convention, and shut down Wall Street, because his band, at the risk of being arrested, played a show right in the middle of it, to show what he thought about our economy(benefitting the rich, oppressing the poor), and you saying Zach just does these things to be seen as cool. That's cool, you guys can think what you want, but people who know Rage will know better.