Raging Against Freedom On Behalf Of The Machine
In modernity, punk rock acts have taken it upon themselves to propagate the acceptance of global establishment mantra, an irony crueler than the tyranny they’re promulgating.
By the time Dead Kennedy’s Plastic Surgery Disasters LP dropped in 1982, punk rock was touted as dead on its feet. Avid supporters of the genre were outraged, and rallied to prove just how incorrect that sentiment was. And thus began a forty-year war that has successfully raged with some of the most astonishing punk rock albums we’ve ever heard.
How insightful it was for Jello Biafra, East Bay Ray, Klaus Fluoride, and D.H. Peligro, to predict the sticky situation we find ourselves in now. It was a warning. And that’s what punk rock was once all about; education, information, to the masses, in the form of a distorted, three-chord, DIY, sledgehammer bliss. The keyword here is was. For in 2022, the likes of Jello Biafra, Henry Rollins, Bad Religion, Green Day, The Offspring, and Rage Against the Machine, are message boys for an authoritarian governmental system that is hellbent on injecting us with the very flu Biafra himself sung about all those years ago.
“Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at the close of day, rage, rage, against the dying light.”
This eloquent sentiment is the perfect depiction necessary to save punk rock in 2022—stay true to your principles, stay fierce, practice what you preach, and remain defiant until the bitter end. Examples of this mantra in the current punk rock climate are few and far between, with common sense left to the veterans; Sex Pistols/Public Image Ltd. frontman John Lydon leading the charge.
As for Rage Against the Machine, their moniker bears the brunt of anti-statist disdain these days, as the once ragers now sit comfortably upon high horses, preaching to us plebs with sentiments of the oppressed while condoning actions of the elite. Their insistence to only play to vaccinated audiences, their support of the establishment-enlisted Black Lives Matter, ANTIFA, and the Southern Poverty Law Centre, their polar-opposite stance against the very lyrics they produce, says it all; fuck you, now do what I tell you. Is the irony lost upon the music masses? Seems, as far as Rage Against the Machine is concerned, the line between rape and consent is invisible.
“He may be a real contender for this position should he abandon his supposed obedience to white liberal doctrine of non-violence, and embrace black nationalism.”
The establishment co-opting of punk rock is the greatest rock and roll swindle of all time. And sure, we’ve gone through this before, only now it’s a matter of life and death. Worship your rock and roll false idols, stick the needle in your arm or lose your job, lose your friends, lose your family, lose your life. Freedom of movement, just watch what you do.
It’s not just Rage Against the Machine spouting establishment propaganda for the “greater good.“ In 2021, The Offspring threw long-time drummer Pete Parada out of the band for refusing an experimental RNA modifier due to doctor’s orders. American punk pioneers Bad Religion have stated that they refuse to play venues that don’t enforce a vaccine mandate, whilst also expressing their support for Black Lives Matter. Former Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra supports Elizabeth Warren, Henry Rollins not only toes the company line, he straddles it at any given opportunity, while a litany of once proud, sovereign, independent acts now prove themselves no better than Heinrich Himmler’s merry band of NAZI propagandists.
Luckily, it is world of heavy metal leading the charge against the gaslightenment we witness before us. Along with a vast array of independent hip-hop artists such as Zuby and Tom McDonald, many heavy acts are burning the establishment narrative with wit, evidence, knowledge, and perhaps most importantly, balls.
And here in lies the proof, culture is the most powerful social medium on the planet. Upstream from politics, culture is the driving force behind any scripted mainstream narrative, and is a weapon all government relies upon. By building culture, or, a new counterculture, we can establish our own narrative, that through music and entertainment will seed awareness of the cloaking of objectivity, thus forcing the hand of pandering politicians to back down. Punk rock may be dead, a hideous zombie cadaver suckling at the teat of globalist oppression, but the DIY ethos it spawned is as bold as it’s ever been.
It is incumbent on freedom lovers to begin pushing our own agenda, our own narrative, lest we all fall victim to the very co-opt that murdered a once crucial genre.
© Chuck Hagen
