This is about the Westernization/influence of capitalism and the United States on the world. Numerous references to exploitative Western legacies (Columbus' ships, the fields overseer of the slaves in the American South, my agents of orange - the shit the US military dropped all over Vietnam, the priests of Hiroshima) "There is no other pill to take so swallow the one that makes you ill" (I think the pill is a metaphor for political system/government, and how the U.S. makes other countries switch to their idea off a democracy)

I heard this was a Nirvana riff – but I don’t know which one.

atthedrive-in
Quote: RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE ARE FUCKING MILLIONAIRES. are you gonna believe that they dont like capitalism? they ARE capitalism. End quote.

I know this is a very old post, but I just couldn't let it pass without my two penneth.

In response atthedrive-in is correct, they are millionaires. BUT there is a difference between them and the people/organisations they are criticising. The people/organisiations profit and make their millions via unethical means ie. slave labour, sweat shops, creating pollution etc. The millions the former members are making are causing significantly less harm than those they slate. The profits made from most of their tours went to political and social organisations. Tom Morello (THE guitar God) has produced CD's along with other musicians to raise awareness of some charities and the proceeds have gone to good causes.

I am a huge RATM fan and their music and lyrics gave me a good kick up the ass and caused me to question everything around me. I have written letters to my local and National MP's, I try to be an ethical consumer, I have protested and although this is not much yet, I am doing something. I have no problems with people who have alot of money as long as they gained it ethically and they have caused no harm or suffering in the process. I DO however have a problem with the multi-corporations who oppress and cause harm and suffering and use their weight to influence governments which thus could have a negative impact on society.

I'm surprised no one actually questioned or talked about the name of the song. "Sleep now in the fire" refers to the buddhist monk who in the vietnam war set himself alight in protest, he didn't flinch, he didn't scream, he just sat there completely peacefully while he burned to death. This hugely effected RATM and they refer to him a lot.
So what they are saying is the cost of your desire aka the cost of americas greed, sleep now in the fire. Yeah..just for your information.

i think this song is about the catholic church.
'jesus blessed me with its future. and i protect it with fire'
no offense to all you catholics, but the church does have a history involving fire. aka spanish inquisition and other instances.

Because it mentions the name Jesus does not make the entire song about the Catholic church, especially when there are so many references to American history in the bulk of the song.

Dumbass

This song is about how the U.S. government believes that it is a christian duty (jesus blessed me with its future) to root out all that they consider to be "evil". and to end tyranny and all that bullshit.

And how the U.S. never stops to think before using great force on another country to get their way (Priests of Hiroshima)...I believe its just about how America has made one to many mistsakes...and about how the U.S. government is getting mad drunk with power...

Actually, I believe this song is about the government brainwashing people with their propaganda, i think this, because of the line "There is no other pill to take, so swallow the one that made you ill" it clearly says they will talk you into doing somthing that is bad....

Rage Against the Machine is the most politically insightful, truthful, coolest, most aweasome rock band of the XX century. No band will ever surpass them, at least not in a *very* long time.

I think this song is about the nature of greed and globalization... "there is no other pill to take, so swallow the one that made you ill" is definately a reference to Francis Fukuyama and his theory of the "end of history" and the unavoidability of free-market globalization (which is bullshit).

Thank you Rage. There won't be another band as fucking amazing as this one. Thank you for being one of the few bands to have the balls to speak out against the system. The only band that managed to make the Wall Street Stock Market close earlier =)

I think the chorus is about political apathy. The "fire" is the actions of the American government, and people aren't doing anything about it (they're sleeping while their house is burning down).

Anyway...in regards to Rage being signed to a major label, this is what Tom had to say about it:
"A lot of labels contacted us, and lots of them just didn't seem to understand what we wanted to do. They kept talking about the message of the music as a gimmick. They were interested in us just because there was a buzz... They saw us as the latest local rock band to be hyped. But Epic agreed to everything we asked--and they've followed through... we never saw a conflict as long as we maintained creative control. When you live in a capitalistic society, the currency of the dissemination of information goes through capitalistic channels. Would Noam Chomsky object to his works being sold at Barnes & Noble? No, because that's where people buy their books. We're not interested in preaching to just the converted. It's great to play abandoned squats run by anarchists, but it's also great to be able to reach people with a revolutionary message, people from Granada Hills to Stuttgart."

for the people who think rage are just a gimmick, you only have to listen/look at the lyrics of inside out to know that that's not true. some of the stuff he says live before playing the inside out stuff is great, gives a real insight into his personal discontents and pre-ratm thought. Zach has always been a socialist, always will be. he'd never do soemthing he didn't beleive in.

i think this song is amazing commerford is an amazing bassist and a lot of people never talk about him where is the love for the bassists lol

The world is my expense
The cost of my desire
Jesus blessed me with its future
And I protect it with fire
So raise your fists and march around
Dont dare take what you need
I'll jail and bury those committed
And smother the rest in greed
Crawl with me into tomorrow
Or i'll drag you to your grave
I'm deep inside your children
They'll betray you in my name

Lets start by defining a narrator for whose expense the world is.
For this analysis, I will assume it is anyone who would value greed over humanity, and we will further define this as we go by looking at what this person is saying.


“The World is my expense, the cost of my desire. Jesus blessed me with its future and I protect it with fire.”
This person is saying they don’t care if it costs the world to achieve their desire. They say that they know Jesus has promised them the fruit of this desire, and they will “protect it with fire” or protect it with force, or more bluntly, take what they want with force.

“So raise your fists and march around – Don’t dare take what you need”
Go ahead, yell, scream, I don’t care, just as long as you “don’t… take what you need” or take anything from me… since my desire is to have things, by you taking it from me, you are getting in my way.

“I’ll jail and buy those committed and smother the rest in greed.”
If you are so committed to taking what you need, Ill kill you or throw you in jail. The more simple minded ones however, I can just dangle a dollar bill in their face and they will be happy. Or better put, I will turn their eyes from me by turning their eyes towards all the things they think they want.

“Crawl with me into tomorrow or ill drag you to your grave”
Similar to the last sentence, if you do not come along, I will kill you.

“I’m deep inside your children, they’ll betray you in my name”
Even if you survive me, and are not blinded with greed, you will die, and before they have a chance to object, I will have your children following me.

“Hey!
Hey!
Sleep now in the fire”

I will get to this further in my discussion.


The lie is my expense
The scope with my desire
The party blessed me with its future
And i protect it with fire
I am the nina, the pinta, the santa maria
The noose-man, the rapist, the fields overseer
The agents of orange
The priests of hiroshima
The cost of my desire
Sleep now in the fire

“The lie is my expense, the scope of my desire.”
An expense can best be described by putting it into context. A new printing press is an expense for a publishing company. A new stadium is an expense for a football team. Your bills are an expense for you. The lie is my expense – I will pay a lie (I will lie to you) in order to get what I want (the scope of my desire).

“The party blessed me with its future, and I protect it with fire”
The party (whatever organization I am involved with) has blessed me with the ability to do this to you, and I will not sit idly as you ruin my ambition – I will kill you if you try and stop me (protect it with fire).

“I am the nina, the pinta, the santa maria (the ships Columbus found America with)”
I found this, therefore, it is mine. (What did I find? I found this think which I am driving for, this thing which I desire).

“[I am] The noose-man, the rapist, the fields overseer. [I am] the agents of orange, the priests of Hiroshima.”
Lets start with the priests of Hiroshima. The priest could be a spiritual guide. That would not fit at all with the tone of this song though. Suddenly I am the one who cares about the people in Hiroshima? What if priest was more like the spiritual judge? I judged the people of Hiroshima, I then condemned them to their death. I kill those people to accomplish my goals.
The noose-man, rapist and fields overseer then, make more sense if the rapist is not a sexual rapist, but a rapist of humanity. It could be said that a country has raped another if they take their resources and use their people. It could be said that I am the rapist if I use you for my means and disregard the consequences. I am the fields overseer. I direct the work to be done. I force YOU to do the work as I see fit.

“-the cost of my desire – sleep now in the fire”
These are the consequences of my desire, and now you sleep in the fire because of them(you are probably dead if you are sleeping in fire).

“Hey!
Hey!
Sleep now in the fire”
Yeah, sleep in the fire now (you are dead, once I have taken what I need from you, in fact, probably because I have taken what I need from you).


For it's the end of history
It's caged and frozen still
There is no other pill to take
So swallow the one
That makes you ill
The nina, the pinta, the santa maria
The noose and the rapist, the fields' overseer
The agents of orange
The priests of hiroshima
The cost of my desire
Sleep now in the fire

“For it’s the end of history. It’s caged and frozen still.”
He seems to leave the narrator’s voice for a second here.
The end of history, and not just the end of history, but this end is caged and frozen (unchangeable).

“There is no other pill to take, so swallow the one that makes you ill.”
I, and my way are the only options you have (sucka!), so looks like you are stuck with what I am doing.

“the Nina, the pinta, etc…”
Already described


So what is Zach saying??
That our world is being raped (some people are taking so much advantage of others), that our people are being forced to follow along this path, by threat of death or jail.

Lets put this into some context, and see what he is saying more closely.
(Warning, this may be offensive)

He has obviously made several references to America (the nina, pinta, Hiroshima, etc).
He seems to be saying that America is pretty much abusing the rest of the world. I won’t go into the policies of it, but it could be argued that we force countries to open up their markets to us so that we can sell them our goods (which are mass produced) cheaper than they can sell their own goods to their own people, thus putting their own people out of business, and raising our corporate salaries by 2%. Further, we abuse the labor laws of other countries to produce our goods for a fraction of the cost which our laws state they should be produced at. Thus, people in foreign countries earn very little for the amount of money they make for the corporations they work for. That is not entirely just because they make a $50 shoe for 10 cents an hour. They make $50 shoes in mass quantities so they can be sold at a very high volume, so that many markets don’t have a choice but to buy $50 shoes (how many shoes can you find for $10?).
The worst of it is if we here, in the country where this is occurring in any way try to stop this, (first we are called anti American) if we do anything that would actually stop it (picket the companies, for example) we are thrown in jail.
Zach seems to comment that the only way to even try and stop this is to do something that would land you in jail or dead. It does seem that no one cares how unequally our country treats other countries, at least no one cares enough to vote for politicians who would enact laws against it, or to find other constructive ways of stopping this abuse of other countries (I mean, @#%$, I need shoes too). Zach seems to conclude violent action (which he even says would be pointless) is the only recourse to this problem.
He concludes, eventually, because of this, we will all end up sleeping in the fire, as a consequence of these ambitions.


Please remember, I do not know Zach's mind, this is just a guess at what he is trying to say.
Regardless of the particulars, this song still says a very important thing.

Quote:
by sicpuppy9872001 on 04-21-2004 @ 05:28:50 PM
'Rage wouldnt fight for democracy, theyre marxists, communists. True communists not like that russian communism bullshit.'
This may have come from a very old post, but i need to clear something up. DEMOCRACY IS ONLY OBTAINED THROUGH COMMUNISM!!!!!!! AMERICA IS NOT DEMOCRATIC!!!!!!! A true democratic society would be communist, egalitarian, and ruled by the people. That's what democracy means. Demo- is a prefix meaning 'people', and -cracy means 'ruled by' or 'government. America is a dictatorship, and democracy is basically freedom.

"Hiroshima during WW2 was completly destroyed by American bombs."

It was only one bomb there bucko.

the lines:

Im deep inside your children
Theyll betray you in my name

and

The party blessed me with its future

reminded me of the book 1984

fuck, not all rage songs are about the goverment

not all rage songs are exactly the sam

to me, this song is clearly about the concept of hell

"i'm deep inside your children, they'll betray you in my name"

it's like he's talking from the evil point of view

"I am the Nina The Pinta The Santa Maria
The noose and the rapist
The fields overseer
The agents of orange
The priests of Hiroshima"

he goes through a list of evil things

"The cost of my desire
Sleep now in the fire"

to me, these two lines are the most black and white

the cost of his desires (all the evil shit he did)
sleep now in the fire (he'll burn in hell)

i think this may be taking a mock point of view

taking the piss outta christianity maybe...

Response to flanger

you are an idiot to say Zack is the only politically aware member of rage is so god damn dumb... i agree with 80% of what your saying but if you got your facts right, Tom Morello is extremely aware on politics, he started up the Axis of Justice with Serj Tankian, while he was working with Audioslave he started a solo career calling himself the nightwatchman, expressing his views on the world and himself. He worked very hard for the Mumia case and many other cases and organizations.

Tim C. isn't a retard, i would like you to say it again when you find out his mother died when he was young and he is also has strong views about American politics . So what if he's a bit eccentric, so what if he rocked the MTV structure in 2000, he's a good man, you are not!

Nothing is True:
You are wrong that democracy comes only from communism. In fact you are wrong that communism has any relation to democracy.
In a Communist system, such as present-day Cuba or the Soviet Union, a dictator assumes complete control of society and the voice of the people is not heard at all. Dissenters are silenced. Your misconception may be due to the fact that Communist regimes invariably claim to be "of the people" because they do eliminnate class systems and bring down the aristocracy. However, as you pointed out, democracy means rule of the people and in a Communist sytem they dont rule-- a dictator does.
A representative system which we have in the US is not a direct democracy because people dont vote on each issue (except in the case of referendums and intiatives) but we vote on representatives who we trust to make decisions. Our systems has branches of government which check and balance each other-- its definitely not a dictatorship. That is way off.
Just wanted to the clear that up although the post im responding to is almost a year old.

To analyze the second verse: it documents all the injustices of history:

I am the Nina The Pinta The Santa Maria - Represents the evil of conquistadors and destruction of cultures, as mentioned in Darnkess of Greed.
The noose and the rapist - Represents the crime of rape, and the unjust executions of people for rape back in the 1930s and 1940s, usually poor black men.
The fields overseer - Refers to the overseer of the plantations in the American South who would prevent the slaves from escaping and usually punish slaves that attempted to escape.
The agents of orange - Refers to Agent Orange, a defoliation agent sprayed on Vietnam by the United States during the Vietnam War, which caused birth defects and health problems for Vietnamese civilians.
The priests of Hiroshima - Refers to the civilans killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II in 1945.
The cost of my desire - As someone above me mentioned, the evil of capitalism.
Sleep now in the fire - An awesome way of saying "die painfully".

Rage condemns capitalism, but America is no longer a capitalist nation. Capitalism is good. Corporatism is bad, and a form of fascism. America is a fascist nation. So, Rage's message is good, but capitalism is not the reason that America is fascist, it is corporatism.

In a truly capitalist society, saving would be encouraged and the nation's people would not be in debt, and therefore less greedy. If RATM realized this, then maybe they wouldn't decide that the complete polar opposite of capitalism, communism is the only solution to greed. America is not a capitalist society, because a capitalist society does not foster greed, it fosters charity and savings. Corporatism or fascism, the same thing, foster greed. So, the problem is not capitalism, it is corporatism or fascism. America is a fascist nation, not a capitalist nation, although it was founded on true capitalist principles.

We have strayed far from our principles. The solution to big government corporatism and greed is not communism, but libertarianism.

i like how he rolls his tounge on santa marriiaaa

Wow there are some really good discussion points about this song. I'd like to add one of my own:

"Jesus blessed me with its future" - In this line I think Zach is referring to the concept of Manifest Destiny coined by the journalist John L. O'Sullivan. In support of the US expansion across North America, O'Sullivan wrote: "And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us." In this quote "Providence" means God, and O'Sullivan believed that God had given the United States a mission to spread our freedom and democracy throughout North America. The concept of Manifest Destiny and the arguments of it's proponents were later used to support American colonization efforts outside of North America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz8wU9DdbqU&NR=1

this should help you out

Democracy was not based after communism, it came way beforehand. Communsim is more like a form of economy control than a form of government, thats why in a communistic state the power vaccum is always assumed by a dictator. Its happened in Russia, Cuba, Vietnam, Korea, China, even as far back as Rome. Don't believe me? Look up "Roman Principate". When land became collectivized the economy sank and emporers replaced one another in a matter of months.

Marx and Frederick incorporated democracy into their communist ideology because at the time that was the government of Europe basically. Ideal communism, as they put it, would be a democratic society where everyone is a worker (proletariat), worked in the same community factories, and shared their earnings and land among one another. Sounds nice, but nothing in theory ever works out in practice.

A fun fact is that Karl Marx ment for communism to take place in states that were already industrialized because of the pre-existing gap between poor and rich and a system of economy to work on. But every state that had adopted communism was a state with an agrarian economy. There was no built-in system for communism to work off of as how do farmers share land crops? There is no proletariat or bourgeoise with farmers, they are the only ones controlling the economy. In addition, human nature is such that we compete with one another for more land or more food. Capitalism works intuitively with human nature while communism seems to be counter-intuitive.